On Cats in Hats, a Zud, and the courthouse clocktower

The fun event, coordinated locally by the St. Johns Education Association, was part of the national Read Across America program that has a stated aim of increasing literacy and promoting reading among youth.

Personally, I believe Mark Horak and Jason Darrow, the St. Johns High School teachers who organized the reading day, had an ulterior motive. I think they just wanted to see some of their 'bosses' - like St. Johns School Supt. Dick Tait and SJHS Principal Mark Palmer - wearing those goofy striped hats.

If so, their mission backfired. Not only did Asst. Supt. Roberta Glaser willingly don her hat - she dressed in a 'Cat' costume, complete with a dangling tail and painted face whiskers.

Actually, those hats seemed to have a reverse effect on every reader. All of us, from the usually demure Colleen Koenigsknecht and Rep. Valde Garcia to the best-dressed man in town - Bob Rehmann - really got into the Cat in the Hat act thanks to our floppy headgear.

In fact, rumor has it that Rehmann's is thinking of adding a "Cat Hat" line to its spring collection. It's undoubtedly what guys on the cutting edge of fashion will be wearing on 'casual Friday' this year.

Hats aside, the real bottom line is that we all hopefully stirred up a little more interest in reading among our young friends.

Bing! Bong! Kerzoar! Who could ask for anything more?

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In a week filled with truly horrible headlines, those two hours spent reading Dr. Seuss provided a little ray of sunshine in a world that far too often seems completely off-kilter. The death of a little first-grade girl - and the hopeless environment of the six-year-old boy who was the unwitting perpetrator of the tragedy - defies human reason.

Scenes of flood waters ravaging the countryside in Mozambique are equally disheartening. Sitting here in a warm home with too much food, it's impossible to imagine the devastation the people in that East African nation are enduring.

Even the e-mail that was delivered last week contained a grim message of human suffering. Rick Smith, a 1989 graduate of St. Johns High School who has continued a friendship among the people of Mongolia after serving there in the Peace Corps, provided information on a "Zud" which is encompassing that Asian country.

The Mongolian Zud - a prolonged and severe winter - has resulted in the death of at least 850,000 head of livestock which the people depend upon for their livelihood.

In an effort to bring public attention - and hopefully some much-needed aid - to the region, Rick and other like-minded individuals have developed a web site which details the suffering that the Zud is inflicting on the Mongolian populace: the photographs of dead cattle, hogs, and sheep provide graphic evidence of their plight.

For information on donating aid, check out the Friends of Mongolia website at the following address: http://home.att.net/~friendsof mongolia/projects/Zud.htm.

Information is also available by writing to: Friends of Mongolia, 159 Second Avenue #1, New York, NY, 10003

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Finally, a picture-postcard view helped alleviate the gloom and doom that prevailed for much of the week.

Rising straight and proud above the skyline of St. Johns, the new clocktower on the Clinton County Courthouse presents a striking image to motorists heading into town. I was surprised to be able to see it clearly from more than two miles southwest of St. Johns near the DeWitt and Parks road intersection.

It certainly is imposing - matching the structure that it sits atop.

Somehow, seeing that clocktower from a distance creates a feeling of well-being - solidness and safety reside here, it seems to say.

It's a nice way to welcome a new week.