Forty-five years ago, in the summer of 1974, the United States was at a crossroads.  

The Watergate scandal raged and congressional hearings revealed the shady dealings of the “plumbers” who had done President Richard Nixon’s bidding: dirty deeds such as breaking into the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist (Ellsberg was a whistleblower with the release of the Pentagon Papers); secretly recording every conversation on an elaborate tape system in the White House; and, of course, the infamous break-in at the Watergate office building, home to the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee.

Michael Bird is a music teacher for Tallassee City Schools.