Welcome to Home of the Brave. I'm Scott Carrier. I think like a lot of people I have been

feeling confused and disoriented from following the news during the first couple of

weeks of the Trump administration.

It feels like somebody keeps pulling the rug out from under my feet over and over.

The stories unfolding like a soap opera or a reality TV show where every episode there's a new

outrageous event and the tension increases.

I can't stand it, but I also can't look away. I have to watch the next episode to see how the

conflict and tension are resolved. But, God damn it, in the next episode, there's a new outrage,

a new conflict, worse than ever.

Nothing gets resolved.

There's just more and more tension.

In reality TV it all builds to a season finale where one person or one team is victorious above all others, and that seems to be the narrative structure now in real life.

America first, every day threaten a new country, I'm afraid we're headed to a war, a big war,

one that will begin with a tweet and end with nuclear explosions.

When I'm confused and don't know what to do, I tend to get in my car and drive around, talk to people

at random, asking them what they think is going on and why.

Because I think it's a good idea to listen to other ideas and ways of seeing things.

So last week I decided to drive to California to the beach. Things started out okay. I was 40 miles southeast of my home in Salt Lake City, driving across the open desert following the old Pony Express route, a sunny day, 10 inches of snow on the ground, and I saw some

guys standing next to a pickup couple hundred yards off the road in the sagebrush so I stopped and walked over to talk to them.

It was a father and three older kids out target practicing.

Steve Merrill.

He'd been a Navy officer in the Persian Gulf War

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