He would be 76 today. I suppose he is 76 , only he’s dead . To say he is alive in our hearts is both mawkish and a poetic truth. I hear his voice internally. I don’t know what he would think about Trump , as if that is the only question worth asking, worth considering, the only question to ask in making sense of America today.

He knew a lot of stuff and had opinions about defence contractors, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Rockefellers, The Hunts ( the right wingers that own a football team now), Hugh Hefner, to name a few. He was a ham radio operator. He kept his fingernails long to expedite handling of screws and nuts.

He had the simple world view of a child. There is right and wrong. The great sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church was a Knights of Columbus Lenten Fish Fry on Friday nights. “Whenever two or three are gathered together in my name…”

He didn’t care much for Johnson, Nixon, The Bushes or The Clintons. Barack Obama reminded him of a men’s underwear model in the J.C. Penney Catalogue. He died before the Age of Trump.

He was averse to The Killing Business that is American Foreign Policy. And domestic policy, too. He called Janet Reno, Janet Waco. (Anybody remember David Koresh , The Branch Davidians or why they qualified for extrajudicial homicide?)

Charlie was paying attention. Maybe that’s why he’s dead today.