Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

12-23-89 . . . Romania is experiencing a political revolution. I don’t know much about the country except that it’s within the Soviet sphere of influence and has excellent athletic programs. This is just the latest in a flurry of revolutions in Eastern Europe. One wonders whether the revolutions will be put down, like so many others over the years. Perhaps the people will succeed. At times like these, I count myself fortunate to live in a nation that values liberty and individuality. It may not be the ideal society (far from it), but it’s arguably the best in the world today. There’s only a handful of countries in which I’m prepared to live. I rule out the Orient as unfamiliar and excessively traditional, the Middle East as religious and intellectually stultifying, and Eastern Europe as politically oppressive. Even South and Central America are unsatisfactory these days. There’s too much corruption and poverty to make even travel worthwhile. The world, alas, is in dire straits, which is why I’m glad to be able to sit here at my computer with a hot cup of coffee on a cold, windswept evening. I take far too much—all the important things—for granted.