Santa's coming pretty soon and we sincerely hope he rations out a generous helping of common sense to everyone in the land.

Seems as though large chunks of that ingredient have been missing from our eroding society for a long time.

Good old horse sense has been replaced by the ignorance and covetousness of a nit-picking public that takes offense at even the slightest suggestion, real or imagined, of impropriety.

Take for instance the agnostics who have somehow gotten as far as the Supreme Court with a suit of petitioning for admission of practicing non-believers into the membership of the Boy Scouts of America.

How that particular case got shoved up to the highest court in this nation remains a mystery, but the ruling handed down by the sitting jurists does reflect a glimmer of hope for the aficionadoes of common sense.

The august, black robed judges rejected without comment the appeal set before them by the plaintiffs, thus giving the Boy Scouts permission to continue excluding boys who won't acknowledge a duty to God.

To "do my duty to God and country" is spelled out in the Boy Scout oath, and as a non-public organization, the B.S.A. is not subject to federal law banning bias in pubic accommodations.

Some years ago, the citizenry of this nation was appalled and outraged when the Extreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that disallowed prayer in public schools.

Currently that decision is being circumvented somewhat with the court's approval of student-requested and student-led school prayer.

Maybe there's a slight nudge toward the direction of reason as reflected in the cases cited here.

We certainly are hopeful that this is the case, but that hope is held with a certain fear that it may vanish at any moment, like a thief in the night.

Nothing, so far as we can discover, has been done to stem the flood of frivolous, clearly unwarranted lawsuits that are glutting our courtroom dockets.

An old college chum once said "you can sue anybody anytime for anything."

Seems like half the population is taking advantage of that truism and is seeking satisfaction at the expense of the other half of the population.

When and if Santa dispenses a goodly portion of common sense throughout the land, we would suggest that he dispense a generous helping of good will along with it.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorism attack on this great nation, there has been a resurgence of Patriotism throughout the U.S., binding our people into a force that recognizes NO insurgence of any sort from the evil, scurrilous would-be invaded. Thus, we have a tie that binds us together with a righteous, Christian love of country and national purpose

a good sign. Perhaps that "good sign" is indicative of a return to a healthy dose of "common sense."