To the editor:

“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.”

Then they started closing small schools, because mass production is more efficient; if it looks like a school, and sounds like a school, then it must be a school. Then they took away creative arts, because music, dance, visual art and drama aren’t basic subjects, because achievement is difficult to measure, because they couldn’t possibly contribute to a quality life or future learning.

And they took away teachers’ jobs, because teachers aren’t changing the world fast enough. But it all worked out, because the Wal-Mart Supercenter hired all the teachers and promised them a living wage. And the people remembered fondly years gone by, when they used to go to dollar movies, play miniature golf and enjoy roller skating. The safe, inexpensive places families could play together were only memories. And soon, the kingdom of Lawrence was indistinguishable from all the other kingdoms.

“Don’t it always seem to go …”

Robin Liston,

Lawrence