A nation at risk

<p class="p1">The following is an editorial comment from the June 24, 1899, issue of the famed Saturday Evening Post. In the latest issue of the publication, editors called it a lapse in judgment. I am not sure that I totally agree. In today's age of emails, social media, Twitter and such, communication has changed in many ways and not all for the better. A lesson could could be learned from the past.</p><p class="p1">"A Nation at Risk. The Lost Art of Conversation"</p><p class="p1">"It is high time someone in authority announced that reading is not the summa bonum of life. The very act of reading is unsocial, a kind of melancholoy barbarism...if you look about you in a railway train, in a street car, or bus you will observe that everyone is reading. Silent, glum, their eyes glued to book or paper, they sit, like so many savages brooding in a jungle...we are reading ourselves into a silent race...already we exchange ideas with printed page – not with our fellowmen...we shall read our way in silence from the cradle to the grave."</p><p class="p1">Proof of the above is as close at hand as attempting to have a conversation with your school age children or grandchildren.</p><p class="p1">The pages of this newspaper give you plenty of reasons to talk with a relative, friend or neighbor, and, trust me, you will feel good that you did so. </p><p class="p1"><span class="s1"> </span></p>