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Has any of you dear readers read the health care reform bill? Has any member of the United States Congress read the zillion page document? I don't know enough about it to even comment, but the "final days" part of the bill kind of scares me. I sneezed the other day and my 7 year old Presley wanted to know who knew where the will was. The refreshing thing about the debate going on in town hall meetings across this great country is that it is holding congressmen and senators accountable to the people that elected them. One of my favorite presidents in American history was Harry Truman who said "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" and the "buck stops here". Congress has passed the buck more times than Joe Namath and Johnny Unitas passed the football.

How are things otherwise? Some bean counters say that we are coming out of the recession and that the economy is fixing itself. Tell that to a small business owner. Explain that to somebody behind on a car payment or a house note. I do hope the economists are correct that we are going to get through this crisis. I pray that they are right. On a more positive note I am hoping that the Haralson County Rebels have a great season of football. I also am looking forward to seeing the Rebel Band. Paul Ramsey is perhaps one of the most dedicated band directors I ever known. We are lucky to have him. I hope some of you high school seniors that are thinking of going to college will take the hour drive over to Kennesaw and check out our campus. We have a brand new food service building that the reviews say is first class. Our new health sciences building should be ready sometime in 2010. Our nursing school is top flight and medical facilities have jobs waiting for graduates. Kennesaw State University can also boast one of the top business schools in the nation with the Coles School of Business. We are also talking about eventually having a Division One NCAA football program in place in the coming years. Our baseball team, golf team, basketball team, and women's softball have all celebrated championships. KSU is the third largest university in the University System of Georgia. with an enrollment of 22,500 this semester. Dr. Dan Papp provides leadership in the president's office and is respected from the halls of academia to the halls of the Pentagon. The former Georgia Tech professor is one of my favorite people. I can't say that about too many people I have worked for with the exception of Jessie Lee Newman who hired me 40 years ago at American Thread Company. I learned a lot from working in that mill. Pulitzer prize winning writer Rick Bragg has a new book out in October about the cotton mill in Jacksonville, Alabama and the salt of the earth people who kept it running . I am looking foward to reading "The Best They Ever Had". Rick's "All Over But The Shoutin'" and "Eva's Man" are two of my favorite books of the past 20 years. I wish I could paint pictures with words the way he does. Don't forget the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Labor Day Telethon is coming up in a couple of weeks. I hope you will watch. You might recognize one of the hosts. He grew up in Tallapoosa and proud of it.