I'm back at school -- for an MS in Education. During class tonight, the professor talked about the growing "struggling class" that is rapidly replacing the middle class in this country and the emergence of "two Americas." What's happening here can't be summed up in a 30-second commercial -- but Americans had better start paying attention.

I recommend one of the assigned readings for the class - "Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too?" -- by John W. Gardner. While it's tied in to education it raises political and social issues that are as timely now -- maybe more so -- as when this was written, first in 1961, then revised in 1984.