Nostalgic

I miss Point-Counterpoint.  Journalists Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick used to debate an issue for a few minutes at the close of 60 Minutes.  It was the 1970s and people were adjusting to civil rights and women's rights.  Every week millions of viewers looked forward to their lively back and forth on the major issues. Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtain would go on to parody the TV segment on Saturday Night Live.  Akroyd's best and most famous line, "Jane, you ignorant slut," still kills.


Of course I rooted for Alexander.  Kilpatrick's positions were easy to argue against because he was always wrong.  Context.  He had supported states allowing segregation before he opposed it.  He even debated his position with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  


Maybe it's the simplicity of the format that I miss.  It didn't go on and on and on.  It had a beginning and an end.  Nothing today exists like it.  Just the opposite. 


I am nostalgic today because tonight is the State of the Union speech. I will watch the speech and the rebuttal by Iowa Senator Joni Ernst. The never-ending commentary?  I will take a pass, at the same time desperately missing a shorter and sweeter point-counterpoint on the night's festivities.