This is from Terrell in Hannibal. Dear Forum: Greetings from the lovely banks of the Mississippi River in dear old Hannibal. Wonder what letter to the editor appeared in today's Hannibal Courier Post on the day before Ken Burns comes to town with a sneak peak of his new biography? We got us a homegrown book banner! For those of you who have been following my lonely pursuit of the real Sam in Hannibal, you will be able to discern just the tiniest bit of progress in Ms. Dietrich's letter. Note that she refers to our boy as "Sam Clemens." In a town where Tom Sawyer and Mark Twain are deliberately blurred into one incredibly white-bread, inoffensive tourist attraction and Sam Clemens is seldom mentioned, it is refressing to see that one of the natives knows his birth name. I am about to pop with pride. Here is Ms. Dietrich's letter: Dear Editor: Three weeks ago I had a discussion with the principal of the middle school regarding the reading material my granddaughter was subjected to read. It was a book written by Sam Clemens in which he used many unacceptable slang words. Today in a court of law these words are considered as "verbal harassment" and "discrimination." The teacher was supposed to call me back to discuss this, so far I have not received this call. Tonight I find out that this same teacher is now reading a Harry Potter book to the class. There are many excellent books available in today's society, why fill our kids' heads with witchcraft and the occult and then encourage them to escape life? What's wrong with this picture? The education system has a responsibility to all of us. That means good examples, good teaching, as well as good books. I encourage parents, grandparents, priests, ministers, rabbis and people of the community to get involved with the program, to help bring back godly values to our education system and take a stand against the ungodly garbage. Janet Dietrich Hannibal Terrell's note. If any of you parents, grandparents, priests, ministers, rabbis and people of the Twain Forum community are game, I think we might consider digging ol' Sam up and baptizing his bones to take care of this Godliness problem. Ms. Dietrich seems to be pretty ecumenical. I think you can get dead folks baptized in Salt Lake City and it sticks. That may be our way out. I'll talk to my friend Father Brendan and get us some holy water. td