Columns

Here’s the “good,” the very very good. This is graduation season. Students brimming with pride, relief and bundles of academic achievements (and scholarship money) will be walking across the stage at their high schools to receive their diplomas this week.

Among them, a young man who scored perfectly on just about every test he ever took, who wrote a paper on “Babylonian Math” — seriously — while racking up the most awards for swimming in the history of his school.

After departing Melbourne on the evening of Sunday, Feb. 26, the Queen Elizabeth spent a day at sea moving up along the coastline some 600 miles until it arrived in Sydney Harbor during the early hours of Tuesday, Feb. 28.

When Cheryl and I first awoke, we looked out from the stateroom balcony and our eyes fell on the handsome, historic city that faced us from the starboard (right) side of the ship.  This scene was a magnificent one, but it in no way compared to what we would see after we were dressed and went to the dining room for breakfast.

In a few short weeks, it will all be over — at least for another school year. Our high school and college seniors will don caps and gowns, march with purpose and pride and collect their diplomas.

Then what?

Typically, our high-schoolers move on to college or university, technical school or some other level of post-secondary training. A portion of college graduates will pursue their master’s degree, but many more will join the labor force.

They’ll be in good company.

Rachel Maddow, “Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power” (New York: Crown Publishers, 2012, 276 pages) — $25.

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Rachel Maddow is best known as the host of her weeknight program on MSNBC, where she is outspoken as a liberal and a Democrat. This book, however, is critical of the erosion of American military power pretty much since the Eisenhower administration regardless of any president’s party affiliation.