Hey there, readers,

Notice what I called you there? I called you readers, because no matter how else you may identify yourself, if you can recognize these little squiggly shapes on the screen as representative of words, speech, and ideas, you are a reader.

Some of you (probably a good deal of you) do a lot of reading in your daily life. You read for work, to gain information, and for entertainment. In fact, it's probably safe to say you spend a good percentage of every day reading.

Now, let me ask you this: Do you remember a time when you couldn't read? Chances are you don't, not really. I mean, you probably remember a time, in your childhood, when your favorite book was something simple and clearly for early readers, like Hop on Pop or Danny and the Dinosaur. But you probably don't remember looking at a sign and having no idea that it meant something.

That's because we, as a society, are readers. Ever since the invention of movable type made printing cheap and writing affordable to even the poorest we have deemed reading a necessity. A country's illiteracy rate is used as a measure of its status in the world. A rate above a few percent is a cause for alarm; in the double digits, an international disgrace.

Even in this country, there are many children at risk of becoming illiterate adults. These are the children of poverty and neglect, children whose parents are poorly educated themselves. And as the world becomes ever more invested in information, those who cannot keep up through reading will be condemned to a lower quality of life.

RIF (Reading Is Fundamental) was founded in 1966 to attack illiteracy in a very basic way, through distribution of books to those children at highest risk. Seems simple, doesn't it. Give a child a book of his or her very own, let them learn to love it and by extension, grow up to become readers. Through the RIF program at my grammar school, I received and loved the above-mentioned Danny and the Dinosaur, Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, a collection of Edgar Allen Poe stories, and, ironically, Fahrenheit 451.

I say "ironically" because earlier this month, President George W. Bush, in his submitted national budget, ELIMINATED FUNDING FOR RIF. That's right, he's cutting that $25 million out of the $3.1 TRILLION budget. I don't want to say $25 million is a drop in the bucket, but considering some of the stuff the government throws cash at, I'd say it's money well spent. And this at a time when the United Stares is losing jobs overseas at an alarming rate. (His wife's a librarian, too. I wonder what she thinks.)

RIF is the Patient Creatures' charity of choice, but that is only one of many reasons I URGE you to write to your congressperson and implore them to continue funding this excellent and ESSENTIAL program. You have a book you love, a book that changed your life and made you the person you are today. I know you do. For that book's sake, and for the sake of every child who may someday read it, write, fax, phone, or email your representative. Do it several times. Do it now.

And send me your comments at the address below. I'll run them in a future column.

Read RIF's statement at their website: http://www.rif.org/about/press/reinstate_rif.mspx
Want to find out how to contact your Senator or Representative? Visit this site: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml