Party Like It's 1776

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote? Because you were the TV remote? Remember when music sounded like this?
Remember when social media was truly social?

**Doug Pike** (0:17)
Hey John, how's it going today? Good, man.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:19)
Well, this show is all about you.
This is 50 Plus with Doug Pike. Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to do for fun.
50 Plus, brought to you by the UT Health Houston Institute on Aging. Informed decisions for a healthier, happier life. And by New Promise Neuropathy. Lose the pain and numbness. Get your life back. newpromiseneuropathy.com. And now, Fifty Plus with Doug Pike.

**Doug Pike** (0:52)
And welcome to Thursday here on Fifty Plus. Thank you all for joining me. As we get closer to America's 250th birthday, holy cow, some really petty politics are being played out in Washington, DC., specifically around the White House, where a handful of states, this bothers me about our country right now, it's just so picky, petty, wishy washy, whatever you want to call it. Around the White House, where we are hosting the Great American State Fair, there are several states, a handful of them anyway, that are not sending any representatives, not participating at all in this Great American State Fair.
The ones that shine most brightly, as far as I'm concerned, in a negative light, Connecticut, Maine, Illinois, Hawaii, Massachusetts, North Carolina, you see the theme growing here, right? Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington, all of those states have opted not to participate in the celebration of this country's 250th birthday.
And that option they've chosen is no more than a political stunt. It only reflects poorly on those states' leaders and their hatred of our president. And that's the only reason they're doing it, is because Donald Trump is president of the United States. And what these no shows are doing, really, it's like not going to your dad's 90th birthday party, because you don't like the way he combs his hair.
It's petty and it's pathetic, and it just shows you how divided we are right now. And by the way, I'll get off of that topic now for a little bit. By the way, while I'm thinking about it, if you have any ideas, I've always asked this, but I'm going to ask it a little more regularly, so I can get a little more participation from all of you. If there is a topic that I have missed, if there is something that you need to hear about, whether it's medical, whether it's financial, whether it's travel, whatever, anything and everything goes, so long as the segments I cover tend to be of interest to older people, to seniors, and their wonderful 35 plus year old children who are monitoring mom and dad's health, monitoring mom and dad's coming and going, hey, that's a big part of this audience, and I'm really glad to have those younger people on board. And all you've got to do to reach me is either, I talked about this on Tuesday, all you have to do to reach me is either send me an email, just dougpikeatihartmedia.com, or you can use the TalkBack feature at the iHeartRadio app. Go to Kprc, hit the TalkBack button, tell me your first name and what part of town you're from, and then tell me what you want to tell me. You got about 15 seconds or so, and that's a long time. Shifting back into the meat and potatoes of this show, and on a brighter side, not just a different side, and a more optimistic side, I'll tell the story of Ellie Gottheimer and Laura Mullen, two high school friends whose families are somehow involved in politics and spend lots of time in Washington, DC. They have written a children's book called Shmoo and Ozzie Go To Washington about social media and about how much of the content there is divisive and destructive, and just really not what it should be to further enhance our country. Ellie said it really well, and I'm going to paraphrase a little bit here because I don't have the direct quote in front of me. But what she said was that most of this content is about you against me. And if you think about a lot of the stuff you see out there, that's exactly what it is. It's you against me when she said it ought to be about you and me against the problem.
That's how politics used to work in this country. Now though, especially from the left, man, if you disagree with something they propose, something they want to talk about and they believe in, they're going to stomp away. They're going to put on a costume, grab a bullhorn, come back and throw water bottles at you.