Mark twain on the cover of time magazine [July 14]! This is Time at its best, just as Twain is America at its best. You can't be the leader of the free world if you are not led by freethinkers. And that's what Twain was and still is: a great free mind. Are these signs that an Age of Reason is dawning? When i was a youngster and i should have been sleeping, I would read about Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher by flashlight underneath the covers at my grandparents' home. Later, a friend and I built a raft and tried to sail across Diamond Lake in Illinois, only to be rescued by fearful adults. When I was 11, my grandmother took me aboard the legendary Delta Queen. Now, after more than 80 years afloat, the Delta Queen is to be put out of service because of inaction by Congress. It brings to mind a Twain saying: "Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." I can't imagine an America without Twain's writings, the Mississippi River or the Delta Queen.
展开▼
