I sometimes wonder how I got so much education. I can't remember my parents ever talking to me about going to college. My high school counsellors were not any help. I took the SAT in my Junior year and made a high score. With encouragement I could have gone to college on scholarships, but no one ever mentioned that to me. I have a lot of cousins, suffice it to say, dozens, even scores of first cousins. Not many people can say that. If I told you the real number you'd fall out of your chair. And I am one of the youngest of my generation, my mother being the 10th of 12, my father, one of 10. Nevertheless, when I went to the University of Georgia in 1969, no one in my family had ever graduated from college. My cousin Bobby went to UGA for one quarter and decided it was not for him. My cousin Alvin was in college there when I decided to go and he became the first to graduate. I'm the only one today with a master's degree and the only one with a doctorate.

In my mind, education was inevitable for me. I had to go and study. You wouldn't think it was in my DNA or in my environmental influences, but for me it was the only thing to do. In each degree program I have felt it was what I had to do.

I feel that education frees the mind to understand the world. Many naysayers today in the Republican party are highly critical of the "elite" and the professors in the world. "Why are those people so tolerant and open minded?" They wonder. If the acceptance of world cultures and ideas becomes the way of life for all it threatens the Christian right. (You have to realize that I was raised by the Christian right. My extended family would almost all consider themselves to be the Christian right.) But education opens your eyes in so many ways enabling you to see that so many lines drawn in the sand, so many walls built between countries, so many pidgeon holes for people, cultures, etc., are false. The answers to questions are not clear. Muslims are not a certain thing, just as Christians are not a certain thing.

Our current preznit is touring the country on another of his constant campaign swings hawking the same old story of intolerance and outright lies. I hope that people have stopped listening to him. I feel that a responsible media would not even cover his events since he never has anything new to say. Trust me. Let me alone decide how to spend your billions. I won't cut and run. I hope people have become wise enough watching this administration's show that they aren't buying it any more.