ofthisandthat
Weekly Letter to the President
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INAUGURATION, January 20, 2009
Drunk in its stale air
For two hundred years.
Fettered in mind and body,
The soul, the safe escape
To let me breathe the cries
Of my heart singing
Tears of mel-an-choly.
The tears flow free today
Washing the stains of blood
And sweat in brotherhood.
Raise the curtain then an'
Let the world look in
On this promised land --
We breathe free today.... almost.
--- Arshad M. Khan
We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.
--- Native American proverb
September 24, 2017
QUACK! QUACK! A FABLE
News Item: Trump's slanging match with North Korea continues ...
Once upon a time there lived ... well, a critter. It had a massive behind tapering down
to knock knees and dainty feet, the whole making it walk with a duck-like waddle.
It kept unusual hours, often wakening long before the early rising cockerel crowed. It
would then quack, spitting out bile at the world, yet calling it a bird's tweet -- as if it
were gentle birdsong pleasing to the ear.
Observers said it walked like a duck, quacked like a duck, so it must be a duck, and
everyone was satisfied the riddle of the mystery critter was solved.
Not quite everyone though. Some still thought it did not behave like a duck. What
kind of duck wakens before the cock's crow, they wondered. What kind of duck fights
with all its neighbors? And some even felt the quacking showed it was a quack, a
fake.
The little Mexican chihuahuas agreed. We are dogs they said, but even we dogs are
frightened of the big, bad, crazy duck. It wants to keep us away from where we often
go for our food.
The Canadian lynx had a similar story. The German mastiff felt insulted. The English
bulldog came a-courting and returned to reconsider. The Chinese dragon chose to
ignore it; the Russian bear is patient. And so it is.
Except. Except there is a little Humpty Dumpty with a fringe on top. It hails from the
North K. No, it hasn't fallen off the wall ... yet. It also spews venom.
In return, quack, quack! Quack, quack!
MORAL: A quack is a quack is a quack. There is no bite.