The Surf Ballroom has gained national recognition from the showplace of rock ’n’ roll history.The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is partnering with the Surf to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Winter Dance Party in 2009.Plus, the Hall of Fame will dedicate the Surf as a rock ’n’ roll landmark, “which identifies locations around the country that have historical significance relative to the origins and development of rock and roll,” according to a letter to the Surf from Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the Rock Hall.“This adds an incredible amount of momentum to our local event,” said Jeff Nicholas, president of the non-profit North Iowa Cultural Center and Museum Inc., which operates the Surf.The Winter Dance Party will be Jan. 28 through Feb. 2. Some entertainment has been booked, including Bobby Vee and Buddy Holly’s original band, the Crickets. But Nicholas said that process will become more significant with the affiliation with the Hall of Fame, which has “such a good relationship with its inductees.”Nicholas said Surf officials had heard from some performers that the Hall of Fame was planning its own observance of the 50th anniversary of the Winter Dance Party, “so we invited them to come here.”Three representatives visited in April, Nicholas said.“Once they saw the Surf and the things we were planning, they decided we’d be stronger together than separate,” Nicholas and Surf manager Laurie Lietz said.“Terry Stewart was only in here for 10 minutes when he said that he’d always wanted to come here but never imagined it was this cool,” Nicholas said. “To tell you how enthused they are, their contingent is coming in Johnny Cash’s 1979 tour bus.”In Stewart’s letter to the Surf announcing the partnership, he called the Surf a “true American cultural icon.”“There are few buildings that exist today that represent a complete shift in our musical history like the Surf does. As the last concert venue for Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, the Surf Ballroom is the bedrock of where the sound and attitude of rock and roll changed forever. The legacy of these artists is sustained in their pioneering efforts, vision and influence on the musicians that came after them.”Designation of the Surf as a rock ’n’ roll landmark will take place Feb. 2. Other locations that have received the landmark designation are the famed nightclub Whisky-A-Go-Go in Los Angeles, Brooklyn High School in Brooklyn, Ohio, where Elvis Presley played his first concert north of the Mason-Dixon Line, and Clarksdale, Miss., which Stewart called the “cradle of the blues.”In closing, Stewart wrote, “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum extends its mission to preserve and educate the world about the history and significance of rock and roll music by supporting the Surf Ballroom and Museum and their continuing efforts to keep the memory of the Winter Dance Party alive. We look forward to a continued and fruitful partnership with them well into the future.”

Traveling the country these past five months while writing a book, I’ve had my own opportunity to take the pulse, far from the campaign crowds. My own totally unscientific polling has left me feeling that if there is one overwhelming hunger in our country today it’s this: People want to do nation-building. They really do. But they want to do nation-building in America.
They are not only tired of nation-building in Iraq and in Afghanistan, with so little to show for it. They sense something deeper — that we’re just not that strong anymore. We’re borrowing money to shore up our banks from city-states called Dubai and Singapore. Our generals regularly tell us that Iran is subverting our efforts in Iraq, but they do nothing about it because we have no leverage — as long as our forces are pinned down in Baghdad and our economy is pinned to Middle East oil.
Our president’s latest energy initiative was to go to Saudi Arabia and beg King Abdullah to give us a little relief on gasoline prices. I guess there was some justice in that. When you, the president, after 9/11, tell the country to go shopping instead of buckling down to break our addiction to oil, it ends with you, the president, shopping the world for discount gasoline.
We are not as powerful as we used to be because over the past three decades, the values of our parents’ generation — work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means — have given way to sub prime values: “You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.”
That’s why Donald Rumsfeld’s infamous defense of why he did not originally send more troops to Iraq is the mantra of our times: “You go to war with the army you have.” Hey, you march into the future with the country you have — not the one that you need, not the one you want, not the best you could have.
A few weeks ago, my wife and I flew from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Singapore. In J.F.K.’s waiting lounge we could barely find a place to sit. Eighteen hours later, we landed at Singapore’s ultramodern airport, with free Internet portals and children’s play zones throughout. We felt, as we have before, like we had just flown from the Flintstones to the Jetsons. If all Americans could compare Berlin’s luxurious central train station today with the grimy, decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would swear we were the ones who lost World War II.
How could this be? We are a great power. How could we be borrowing money from Singapore? Maybe it’s because Singapore is investing billions of dollars, from its own savings, into infrastructure and scientific research to attract the world’s best talent — including Americans.
And us? Harvard’s president, Drew Faust, just told a Senate hearing that cutbacks in government research funds were resulting in “downsized labs, layoffs of post docs, slipping morale and more conservative science that shies away from the big research questions.” Today, she added, “China, India, Singapore ... have adopted biomedical research and the building of biotechnology clusters as national goals. Suddenly, those who train in America have significant options elsewhere.”
Much nonsense has been written about how Hillary Clinton is “toughening up” Barack Obama so he’ll be tough enough to withstand Republican attacks. Sorry, we don’t need a president who is tough enough to withstand the lies of his opponents. We need a president who is tough enough to tell the truth to the American people. Any one of the candidates can answer the Red Phone at 3 a.m. in the White House bedroom. I’m voting for the one who can talk straight to the American people on national TV — at 8 p.m. — from the White House East Room.
Who will tell the people? We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.
I don’t know if Barack Obama can lead that, but the notion that the idealism he has inspired in so many young people doesn’t matter is dead wrong. “Of course, hope alone is not enough,” says Tim Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics, “but it’s not trivial. It’s not trivial to inspire people to want to get up and do something with someone else.”
It is especially not trivial now, because millions of Americans are dying to be enlisted — enlisted to fix education, enlisted to research renewable energy, enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others. Look at the kids lining up to join Teach for America. They want our country to matter again. They want it to be about building wealth and dignity — big profits and big purposes. When we just do one, we are less than the sum of our parts. When we do both, said Shriver, “no one can touch us.”

Last week, I was at a 25th wedding anniversary for an average normal couple, if there is such a thing. He's a schoolteacher, she's a sales clerk. These are two careers where you don't take business trips. That means that at the end of every day, you both go home. You have to respect that. This is a marriage with no time off. Compare that to the scenario where the man and the woman are both senior executives in a large corporation. They travel all the time. In 25 years of marriage, they're really only together about four years. We need to differentiate between these types of marriages. It's not how many years you're married, it's how many days and, more importantly nights, you've spent together. Now obviously we don't want to discount the accomplishment of a 25-year marriage, regardless of the reduced years of active service, but I think you have the right to calibrate your gift based on the degree of difficulty. The traveling business couple should get flowers and a card, the stay-at-home working couple deserves something better. I suggest a gift of separate holidays for each of them or a large bottle of an expensive beverage with a significant alcohol content.