Aw the Heck with it, my insides have churned and churned relentlessly most of the early morning; there will be no peace within me ‘til my pen quells my frustrations. I shall now give my mind its say!

I do indeed often dream of Jeannie: her magic power and such. Such silliness! A rational cognizant individual will reject such simplistic wishful notions that we can effect a reality of our choosing at our moment of choosing. I am now speaking unfashionably, for I too, too often dream of “Jeannie,” her magic powers and such; to be manifested as the wielding of a magic wand, the twitching of the nose, the blinking of the eyes, etc. Many among us do indeed believe in such magic and its sinister yet so fashionable cousin, the magical instantaneous cure.

In our increasingly virtualized lives we endlessly and continually minimize its very meaning, for we are drawn in, again and again, by the illusion of the easy cure, and so it is today that my thought turns to John Leo and his many poignant essays, for he is surely tossing-and-a-turning relentlessly and with much duress within the confines of his entombment. Lord have Mercy! Quite unfortunate for us that his essays are no more. His hard-hitting reality checks were gifts of lore; his pen and his wit have ceased, yet his lessons shall live eternally. We can be so fortunate.

So it was, the events of yesterday… Wise minds at our dear state’s esteemed (pun entirely intended) Department of Education have now effected the end of American history within the state’s boundaries; by decree, in yet another bold, innovative stroke of “unschooling” brilliance, they have unschooled our future youngsters using a different and unexpected variation than the current fad to be sure, but UNSCHOOLING nonetheless!

I shall with that thought close as Mr. Leo’s tormentors in THE “Thought Police” are surely gonna reappear at MY threshold…

Walter P. Okhuysen

Starkville