OpEdNews - Diary: TGIF

Have a happy and safe holiday, everyone! I'm staying home and already anxious for a time of contemplation .

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Not because it's just another Friday, but because it's the one where we are supposed to contemplate mortality and be grateful for the life we have and thankful to those whose lives we remember. It's a time to watch PBS' celebration at the Mall in Washington, D.C., not at the one where shopping to drop is allowed. On the more mundane side, it's a chance to have C-Span for ourselves rather than having to share with the a bicameral Congress. Maybe there'll be a few good book reviews interspersed with reruns of notable speeches of leaders and of campaigners who aspire to leadership. And all of this without any worry of paying out. Maybe some tasty groceries, but not for a whirlwind exercise in gasoline consumption. Schools have been out for a couple of weeks in my part of the state, true to what worked in agricultural days. We've had the celebration of high school graduations and are into learning who gets a Hope scholarship, bounty from the lottery Tennessee passed four years ago. First crop of college graduates are giving testimony on public TV to spur on new recruits. I think of John Kerry's "mistake" opinion concerning going to college or going to Iraq. Goodness knows there are plenty of the latter in this part of the country. But hasn't it always been thus? Southerners bear the brunt of slogging. Cannon fodder, it used to be called. Is there an updated phrase? Since this is what is considered the unofficial start of summer, I will have a private celebration. It's time to order some books to last through what promises to be a long summer.