April 22, 2005 journal, tornadoes in the area slaying the forest, the apprehension of a five year old with handcuffs in Tampa St. Petersburg, Florida. Jeb go to visit the new German Pope. Terrible things are happening in the world. A 16 year-old girl is killed driving a car. So much violence being reported families. Power was lost in most of the city, surrounding counties as a violent storm front came through and I saw a whirlwind in the yard sucking everything upward. Artistsphere was wiped out on South Main Street where 100 artists were displaying their work. Torrential rains blanketed the area and streets were blocked with fallen trees. Most red lights in the city were out. Reports of hail as large as golf balls. A police officer died of brain cancer in neighboring Laurens after he had served in Iraq. This confirms the report of the negative health results from serving in a contaminated area. The arrest of a 5 year-old girl in her school in Florida dominates the news. It took 3 big fat police officers and some say 5 to arrest this little girl. Who questions but that we are a police state. The chili finger woman of Las Vegas has been arrested for claiming she found a human finger in her Wendy's soup purchased in San Jose Californian. Here locally the DMV has been giving out fake car titles reportedly in a new scam to walk in with a VIN number and the name of the last owner and get a title produced right away. Have faith in God Almighty because it’s the only way out of this world to heaven after our work is done. An article from the Austin Chronicle by Michael Ventura of February 23, America # one. “No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the U-S-A is number one, “the greatest”. Our broadcast media are in essence continuous advertisements for the brand name "America is number one". Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled “un-American". We are an “empire”, aren’t we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're number one. Well…this is the country you really live in: the United States is 49th in the world in literacy, (the New York Times, December 12th, 2004). The United States ranked 28 out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYTimes December 12, 2004). 20 percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. 17 percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day. (The Week, Jan 7, 2005) "The International Adult Literacy Survey ... found that Americans with less than 9 years of education score worse than virtually all of the other countries. (Jereme Rifkin’s superbly documented book the European Dream: Now Europe's vision of the future is quickly eclipsing of the American Dream, page 78. Our workers are so ignorant and like so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on re-medial training (NYT Dec.12, 2004) No wonder they relocate elsewhere! “The European Union leads the U.S. in... the number of science and engineering graduates; in public re-search and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream page 70”. "Europe Surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature (The European Dream p-70). Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science foundation. The agency will issue 1000 fewer research grants this year. (NYT, December 21, 2004). Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28% last year. Foreign student’s enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in 3 decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad school grads in the U.S. dropped 56%, India 51%, South Korea 28%, (NYT Dec 21, 2004) we’re not the place to be anymore”. This is I believe important information to consider our future.