With each issue of Smithsonian I want to visit the wondrous treasures that our museums hold. . . . From smashing the atom in a supercollider to the thoughtful prose of a Robert Frost, I will continue at 43 to learn facts and mysteries through reading books. And I will honor my obligation to try and pass on to others what I have learned. My job is much harder than yours. I have to put pictures of naked women on the outside of my books and magazines in order to trick others into reading them.
More money is put into prison construction than into schools.
That, in itself, is a nation bent on suicide. . . . We'll certainly need more prisons if our students won't read books. And if our legislators don't send our students books to read, they themselves should be imprisoned. Hopefully your editorial will receive more illuminating responses and experiences of specific literature with which to inspire your students. Perhaps you can use mine to exemplify the consequence of failure and point out how easy it is to slide into submoronic idiocy.