If You Can Read This

My father was a school teacher and while I have no memory of his being the one who taught me to read (on less charitable days I also mutter under my breath, 'or anything else' primarily because I'm an asshole), I do remember being the only one who could read 'chapter books in my first-grade class at the Wannamassa Elementary School (which seems to look very much as I remember it from about sixty-four years ago). Dick and Jane and Spot and Puff will live forever in my heart.

Our two children are lifelong learners and avid readers, long ago having eclipsed me in reading for both knowledge and/or pure enjoyment. I would assume since you're here at this space in the ether, that you, too, are a reader but I've learned appearances can be deceiving (living in a garage does not, seemingly, make you a car. Imagine my surprise (and what am I supposed to do with this set of white-wall tires I got for my birthday?)).

Humor aside (yes that was what the previous sentence purported to be), today is International Literacy Day, And the need to highlight the importance of literacy is readily apparent as according to UNESCO, at least 771 million young people and adults worldwide currently lack basic literacy skills.

As "Fast Eddie" (Dr. Edward J.) Bloustein, as he assumed the presidency of the Rutgers University System in the spring of 1971 told us, freshmen, on the green behind Vorhees Hall and surrounding the statue of William of Orange (a/k/a Willie the Silent), "the purpose of an education is to learn the rules of the game better than anyone else so that you can then change the rules." 

If you can't read, you're doomed to failure. If you choose to NOT read, you're already there.
-bill kenny