I started grad school today

[ashling]

well, actually, I've already got 1 graduate degree (JD) and abou6 hours of grad work in history, but I wasn't able to finish my history MA. As John Lennon put it, life is what happens while you are making plans. Now that the kids are grown, Melodie and I are going back to school. She is finishing her undergrad and then we will both be grad students in the fall. Me in History & Government, her in Government & History.

Here is the introduction that I posted on the online blackboard for my Public Policy Seminar:



I am a 50 something Democrat who has always been interested in politics/public policy/the public good.(well, for at least the last 40 years) I earned my BA in history from Millsaps College in 75 and my J.D. from Mississippi College School of Law in 1982, upon which I started the practice of Law in Morton, MS. I have worked as a petroleum landman, a private practice attorney, corporate attorney in the Title Insurance Industry, and as a public administrator for a state psychiatric hospital. My first exposure to politics (as far as I remember) was watching the Democratic Convention on TV in 1960 and then the Kennedy/Nixon debates that fall. Obviously I didn't fully understand what it was all about at that time. My first real world experience with politics was delivering campaign literature door to door for LBJ in 1964. After having several doors slammed in my face and having to dodge several airborne newspapers in a very conservative area, I decided that I must be doing something right. Since then I have been hooked. I look forward to working with all of you to solve all of our most pressing national problems this semester.

[Major Hogwash]

1. Congratulations.

Getting a graduate degree is one of the best things a person can do for themselves in a time of crisis like we find ourselves currently in with Bush the Idgit in the White House. You won't have time for anything else.

I went back to school when Raygun was in the White House and while everyone else was running around complaining about him trying to get ketchup labeled as a vegetable for school lunch programs, I was working on my Masters.

The Raygun Diaries are out now and everyone on teevee talking about them think they are so wonderful listening to the private thoughts of a deluded has-been actor who was playing the part of the President in real life.

If anyone ever read my diary of those days, they would never want to serve in the military.

[ashling]

2. Thanks

I was workingin title insurance in Wash DC in those Raygun days. My office was abou t block from the Whitehouse. I used to eat lunch in Lafayette Park, and when the prez helecopter took off I'd say: go get 'em Sam (back when Sam Donelson was good for something besides being a toupee holder)