The more things change …

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

A young man was hitchhiking east of Reno, Nev., in May 1971 on his way to Washington, D.C.

I was a naval aviator and flight instructor, driving to the naval air station in Fallon, Nev., for two weeks of weapons training for pilots headed to Vietnam. I stopped to give the man a ride.