Education should not be in the hands of the state. My point was that I attended the GOP Platform conference when they were discussing what part the government would play in Education! At that conference were several educators from many states who had changed their junior high school and senior high school curriculums and brought up the scores in their states! I was impressed!

What I noticed was that the individual educators had used the same systems that had been proven successful in the private schools for 50 years. If a couple of these educators could work miracles in the last 6 years of schooling, just think what could be accomplished in the first 6 as well?

I expected the Department of Education to take note and put out a document describing all these new systems and release them to the States, and then drop the whole damn thing!! Bush promised a "Leave no Student behind" which was redundant when the schools have lost the ability to teach even the most simple of academic subjects.

In my opinion this presentation should have been a part of the Governor's conferences but we have learned that the Governors have no interest in the education of their kids for a minute. I am desparate to see the public school system change and bring back the academics and dump the social issues that are being mandated from the Federal Government.

The first public school my kids ever attended was University of California at Berkeley! Few California kids out of public school could get in that University without 2 years of corrective English classes first. The number of Asian students at Berkeley indicated to me that it was indeed a first class school.

I believe we have a generation gap here and you may have kept up with the latest writings of the Libertarian Objectivists. I have not done this except to check out why they vote the way they do. I tend to stay away from any philosophical group and have found the new Objectivists so far out from the core of Rand's beliefs to be impossible to follow.

I remember the night (1963) at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles when Rand endorsed Goldwater for President. It was truly the icing on the cake for many of us who had just heard her 2 hour talk on her Objectivism. She was most assuredly aware of the new movement that we all called "Conservatism" and she highly approved. Had she lived to this time and seen how Bush has abused the term she would have stormed out of any discussion.

I have also noticed that when two Objectivists try to communicate it ends up in a food fight. I am willing to admit that in the last 40 years I may have refined my own view of Rand's words but they have worked for me through thick and thin. They certainly convinced me that I had married Richard Taggart and when he took off with his secretary I wasn't the least surprised. She opened my eyes to search out the ideal qualities in people. Many simply don't have any but a handfull who have remained my true and good friends were found and I have always thanked her for this.