Legal Literacy hosts Blawg Review # 176 and just in time for the Presidential election!  We're reminded that today is International Literary Day; that millions of people throughout the world do not have the opportunity to learn the 3Rs; that the U.N. is ushering in the UN Literacy Decade; and, most importantly to local national concerns,  that "literacy is what gives us the freedom and the key to survive" both individually and as a thriving democracy.

I've been talking about the election to a lot of people because I'm involved in the campaign.  I cannot tell you how many well-educated people are relying upon their "gut feelings" to choose the next President  because they aren't "really interested" in or "don't have the time to explore" the actual issues.   

So I do what I'm trained to do as a mediator.  Ask a lot of non-threatening well-meant questions to help people think about the decision that so many of us and our forebears fought so hard to win the right to make.   Of couse I'd like them to vote for my candidate.  But if they decide, after thinking through the issues, that they want the other guy, I won't argue.  I might, however, ask a few more questions.