Today's offering is a sad commentary on our education system in these United States. I viewed a news program recently which affirmed that only one in three people had read a book of any type in the last year. Did you know that 7 million Americans are illiterate, 27 million are unable to read well enough to complete a job application and 30 million can't read a simple sentence. Can you believe that? I find it very sad and discouraging, but I do believe it's true.

We are one of the most wealthy and developed nations in the world, and a large part of our population lacks the necessary skills to adequately cope with day to day living.

Here's three personal encounters:

• I once was employed working with horses in Massachusetts, and was asked to take a horse van to Virginia with a fellow employee to pick up a horse that had been purchased. Once on the road we stopped for breakfast at a diner. After I placed my order, "Billy" looked up from the menu and said to the waitress, "I'll have the same". "Billy" offered to drive for a while, so I said, "Ok, just take 95 South, and wake me up when we hit New Jersey". A few hours later he did just that. Much to my surprise, I looked up and saw a sign saying "Albany 20 miles". "Billy" could not read!

• I once employed a 14 year old girl in the boarding kennel my wife and I owned together. She'd do her homework from school when things were slow. One day she proudly showed me an essay on which her teacher had given her an A+. It had so many misspelled words and disjointed paragraphs that it seemed impossible to me that she'd not been given a failing grade.

• I was working a large consumer show a year or so ago when the venue lost all power. I noticed that the booth opposite us was not making any sales, and asked the girl manning the booth why? She replied, "The cash register doesn't work." She had NO IDEA how to make change. Haven't you been in a convenience store in the last year when their computers "go down"? I have, and commerce comes to a standstill because their clerks have no idea that they could continue to operate without them.

Excerpted from the National Institute for Literacy's latest report:

The ability to read and understand complicated information is important to success in college and, increasingly, in the workplace. An analysis of the NAEP long-term trend reading assessments reveals that only half of all White 17 year olds, less than one-quarter of Latino 17 year olds, and less than one-fifth of African American 17 year olds can read at this level.

By age 17, only about 1 in 17 seventeen year olds can read and gain information from specialized text, for example the science section in the local newspaper. This includes:

• 1 in 12 White 17 year olds
• 1 in 50 Latino 17 year olds, and
• 1 in 100 African American 17 year olds.

Visit the National Institute for Literacy website.