Farewell to the reader in chief

[sheshe2]

When I am king, they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books; for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved ... for learning softeneth the heart and breedeth gentleness and charity.”


— Mark Twain, “The Prince and the Pauper”



Eight years ago, in these pages, the author Ishmael Reed wrote an essay about “a Celtic African American with a golden tongue and a golden pen” who was poised to assume the highest office in the land. Barack Obama, Reed posited, had the makings of a great literary president.



“Books can make you better,” Reed wrote. “Obama knows this and will perhaps help lead the nation back to literacy.”

So how did President Obama fare? And what will change under the new administration?

Even if you didn’t vote for the man and disliked his policies — even if you happened to buy into the race-baiting fabrication that he wasn’t born in this country, that he was somehow constitutionally unfit for his job — one cannot dispute that the president has been an exemplary ambassador for literature, a leader who has championed reading as a way to open our eyes to the world, to nurture understanding, to see ourselves in others.

Read More: http://www.sfchronicle.com/books/article/farewell-to-the-reader-in-chief-10808928.php?t=8d9cacb62d&cmpid=email-premium

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Happy Holidays one and all~

[gulliver]

1. Clinton, Dubya, Obama, Trump

This country is pulling some serious G forces. Going from Clinton to Dubya and his Republicans was a gut wrenching dive. Then from Dubya to Obama and the Dems we had a faint-inducing dive recovery and climb. Now it's a deep, straight down Republico-idiocratic dive.