Just listened, on my way home from work yesterday, to a story on NPR's "All Things Considered" -- "Military Recruiting: Are We Passing the Test?".

They said, "Nearly one of every four high school graduates can't pass the basic military entrance exam, a new report shows. Combine that with high obesity rates and a rise in criminal records, and the pool of potential military recruits is getting very shallow." And that the only thing keeping military recruitment levels up is the sucky economy.

I couldn't wait to learn to read (circa 1954), learned quickly, and have read extensively for over 55 years. I have very eclectic tastes, but run towards biographies, history, mystery and historical fiction, science fiction, poetry, and science. Most of my friends (folkies, in particular) are prodigious readers as well. I HAVE found that many of the people I've worked with over the decades never read anything other than a newspaper or, perhaps, a romance novel.

I remember once, twenty-some years ago, where the only other person at the printing company where I worked, who knew who Luther Burbank was (and got the reference in the original "Little Shop of Horrors") was an elderly man working in the bindery. My boss, the owner of another printing company, didn't see the humor of a paper color named "Dorian Gray". A former dentist had no idea that a ladyslipper was a wild flower or what it looked like.

I don't understand people who don't read, as I'm compulsive -- I read to get into the day and I read to get out of the day. I keep a book (usually poetry) in the car, for the odd moment. Because I have a busy life, I'm reading less these days -- averaging about 130 books a year (down from when I was younger). Yes, I keep a book list (since November 1, 1972). And that's not counting newspapers, magazines, newsletters, free local publications, online research etcet etcet.

But, yes, I think the government would prefer we be mindless, illiterate and easily manipulated.

Linn