December 4, 2000

Dear Friends and Subscribers,

I used to be a night owl. Each night I would go through the bedtime routines, get my family settled, even go to bed myself, and then, when their breathing was deep and even, I would creep out of bed and slip downstairs to write, read, or work on projects. I loved the quiet darkness and lack of interruptions.

Now I find that quiet time in the early mornings. I listen for the slap of the newspapers in the driveway and then slip downstairs to read them, cover to cover, catching up on the previous days' news. I grade papers, work on lessons, read email. Usually I'm working the crossword puzzle when the gang troops downstairs.

This month I haven't even waited for the slap of the newspaper. With Mark frequently out of town and the bed to myself, I flip on the remote as soon as consciousness opens my mind, anxious to know what FoxCable, MSNBC, and CNN are reporting on the latest voter counts, court rulings, editorial opinions, and those all-important overnight opinion polls. Lately my newspaper has been little more than a carrier for the crossword puzzle and the movie reviews-- the ten hours between press time and delivery is just too much.

I've felt that way about my column for this webpage as well. I began with the best of intentions of writing two columns each month, but with so much being written and opined in the electronic media on an hourly basis, my lag time of 2-3 days makes writing seem futile. Like you, I'm worried about how this is affecting the economy, and that a Bush presidency will be blamed for the mistakes of the Clinton/Gore policies; like you, I worry about the legal precedents that have been established by supreme court interference and extended deadlines; like you, I wonder how the Democrats can count the baby inside a pregnant woman as nothing, and yet count a pregnant chad as fully viable. Right now I'm worried about how our court system will rule today on the help voters received in filling out their absentee ballot requests (and wondering who helped those 450 felons fill out their absentee ballot requests in Miami-Dade...) But by the time I can write it and post it, it's already been said enough.

All right, I suppose those of you who live north of Florida aren't totally engrossed in our election saga. You may even be talking about the upcoming holidays or last night's basketball game or the worrisome pattern of fires on AirTran jets. But down here in Florida we can't get away from it--or enough of it.

But life does go on, we will have a new president shortly, and we'll go back to talking about such issues as education, finances, sports, family relationships, movies and books. As December begins I am making a new resolve to write those two columns each month. Number 3 will be posted within a couple of days--and it won't have anything to do with the election.

But I have to ask you one more Gore-y question: Did you laugh at the conclusion of Al Gore's pre-Monday Night Football press conference, when he ended it with George W. Bush's signature "God bless America"? Not much has changed since that first debate; Al "Me Too" Gore is still desperately trying to figure out who he wants to be when he grows up. Let's hope he has lots of time to think about it.

-- Jo Ann Skousen

email: jaskousen@mskousen.com

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