My calendar is running backwards and I am somehow being transported back to the 1960’s. Or so it seems. I think New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd got it right when she wrote this week that the nation is suffering “a nervous breakdown.”

Even worse, is an outbreak of national paranoia—a condition that is being exploited by politicians, preachers, and talk show characters like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck and the Republican Propaganda Network—also known as Fox “News.”

Indeed, the country is being exposed to a sick joke this week by the planned Glenn Beck rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Beck personifies all that the Reverend King opposed. Instead of unifying people as civil rights leader dreamed, Beck’s rhetoric is designed to divide the country.

He claims that the selection of August 28th for his rally is a benevolent accident—a date orchestrated by God. If this is truly God’s plan, I have hunch that a lightning storm will hit Washington on Saturday. If that comes to pass, Glenn should avoid standing beneath trees. And that probably goes for many other people attending the rally.

If some of the past Tea Party demonstrations are an indication, Glenn’s soiree will be exploited by far-right fringe groups. And although the Ku Klux Klan has been reduced to double digit numbers in most parts of the country, there are still enough racists around to fill a lot of sheets. They will show up, invited or not, to spread their brand of hatred—often in the name God.

The “God told me so” syndrome is nothing new. My old pal, Jimmy Swaggart, has regularly used quotation marks in relating instructions given him by the Lord. Unfortunately, Brother Jimmy’s hearing must have been failing when he heard God say, ”Go forth and save prostitutes.” Jimmy thought he heard, “Go forth and pay prostitutes.”

As someone who has worn a hearing aid for years, I know the problems of  misunderstanding words. And I’m guessing this is what happened to the Pastor of the Dove World Church in Gainesville, Florida. He believes God wants him to promote ”Burn the Koran Day” on the 9/11 anniversary.

But who am I to judge the hearing of other folks—Pat Robertson being the exception. The TV mogul and religious broadcaster has been wrong so many times in relaying God’s word that he must be deaf. Undeterred by his hearing loss, Robertson continues to interject himself in ongoing controversies. Most recently, he weighed-in on construction of the proposed Islamic mosque and cultural center in lower Manhattan. Earlier his month, an organization he heads filed a lawsuit to block the project. For me, the very fact that Robertson opposes the mosque suggests that it is worthwhile.

Although I am sympathetic to the protests of families of World Trade Center victims, they represent only a small percentage of the people opposing the project. In fact, there are families of victims who support the center, which is being constructed as a symbol of Islamic moderation. 

But sadly, Muslims are the victims of a wave of the mass hysteria sweeping the nation because of an economic downturn and fear of the future. In bad times, the population can easily be manipulated by morally corrupt politicians and others with selfish motives. Watching the confrontations between groups of demonstrators at the mosque site this past weekend was reminiscent of covering civil rights more than forty years ago.

The sheets and hoods of the sixties were missing. Still, I fear they may return if the characters exploiting the hysteria don’t butt out.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.