'Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream'

Here is a rare recording of John Denver at Ethel and the late Bobby Kennedy's home in Hickory Hill, Va., singing "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream."

Today, I read an Associated Press story about the life of Kim Phuc, the girl captured in the Pultizer Prize-winning 1972 photo after she'd been hit by napalm.

I thought about my friends in the United States Marine Corps's Kilo Company 3/5, Vietnam, 1970.

I thought about our troops in Afghanistan. I thought about all those vets returning home from Iraq.

And, I thought about all this partisan bickering back here in the States, crazy cacophony over wedge issues on which we'll never agree.

Sometimes I just want to shut my eyes from it all, move to Maui and say to hell with the other 49 states, and quit fighting what I believe is a good fight.

But, no. As Americans we can't do that. Imagine if the Greatest Generation had done so.

I am glad, though, that John Denver had his strangest dream. In my heart, I agree with him.