by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator
I'm tired of writing about Donald John Trump, damned tired of trying to piss down the typhoon of lies and hate that is unrelenting in its assault on basic American values like honesty, decency, charity, and a strong work ethic. The America of my youth, one defined by The Saturday Evening Post and Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower, has been replaced by Storm Front and a bad caricature of Benito Mussolini and G-String Barbie. There is nothing "presidential" about Donald Trump, and the longer he remains at the head of our government, the more unrecognizable the America of my youth will become.
Trump is a gross individual who is basically a walking disruption of most of the Ten Commandments as well as a personification of many of the Seven Deadly Sins - and he is not someone who thoughtful people would want their children to emulate - nor would many desire for him to join their car pool or suddenly buy the house next door. Yet somehow people see no problem with this morally challenged and obnoxious individual posing as the leader of the nation that they rely on for protection, education, employment, health care, and retirement. Trump's appeal to voters of any background truly boggles the mind.
But it is hard to ignore Donald Trump, and especially so on April Fool's Day. This day typically honors outrageous gags perpetrated among friends. And basically in the run-up to the 2016 election many people thought of Trump as a running gag, one that might make us blush, or even laugh out loud, but few people, including Trump himself, gave much serious thought to the notion that he might actually win the election.
But Trump won, kinda sorta, and with the backing of hoary old Electoral College, he was installed as the leader of the United States. A joke that was being assembled in a backroom by a ragtag group of political pranksters, essentially for laughs and to build Trump's merchandising brand, suddenly jumped off of the lab table and marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the tune of "Hail to the Chief."
And the joke was on us!
Today, in honor of April Fool's Day and with a strong disrespect for Donald Trump's strenuous aversion to telling the truth, I have selected "The Fool's Song" by 20th century American poet William Carlos Williams as the poetry selection for the week. It's a short and simple piece with a clear message: we might seek to control (or cage) truth, but in the end the truth will set itself free. Donald Trump lies incessantly and often for no reason other than habit, and when Donald Trump's towers of lies finally begin to collapse, they will produce a rolling disaster on a par with anything ever put to film by Spielberg.
The Fool's Song
by William Carlos Williams
Poetry Appreciator
I'm tired of writing about Donald John Trump, damned tired of trying to piss down the typhoon of lies and hate that is unrelenting in its assault on basic American values like honesty, decency, charity, and a strong work ethic. The America of my youth, one defined by The Saturday Evening Post and Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower, has been replaced by Storm Front and a bad caricature of Benito Mussolini and G-String Barbie. There is nothing "presidential" about Donald Trump, and the longer he remains at the head of our government, the more unrecognizable the America of my youth will become.
Trump is a gross individual who is basically a walking disruption of most of the Ten Commandments as well as a personification of many of the Seven Deadly Sins - and he is not someone who thoughtful people would want their children to emulate - nor would many desire for him to join their car pool or suddenly buy the house next door. Yet somehow people see no problem with this morally challenged and obnoxious individual posing as the leader of the nation that they rely on for protection, education, employment, health care, and retirement. Trump's appeal to voters of any background truly boggles the mind.
But it is hard to ignore Donald Trump, and especially so on April Fool's Day. This day typically honors outrageous gags perpetrated among friends. And basically in the run-up to the 2016 election many people thought of Trump as a running gag, one that might make us blush, or even laugh out loud, but few people, including Trump himself, gave much serious thought to the notion that he might actually win the election.
But Trump won, kinda sorta, and with the backing of hoary old Electoral College, he was installed as the leader of the United States. A joke that was being assembled in a backroom by a ragtag group of political pranksters, essentially for laughs and to build Trump's merchandising brand, suddenly jumped off of the lab table and marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the tune of "Hail to the Chief."
And the joke was on us!
Today, in honor of April Fool's Day and with a strong disrespect for Donald Trump's strenuous aversion to telling the truth, I have selected "The Fool's Song" by 20th century American poet William Carlos Williams as the poetry selection for the week. It's a short and simple piece with a clear message: we might seek to control (or cage) truth, but in the end the truth will set itself free. Donald Trump lies incessantly and often for no reason other than habit, and when Donald Trump's towers of lies finally begin to collapse, they will produce a rolling disaster on a par with anything ever put to film by Spielberg.
The Fool's Song
by William Carlos Williams
I tried to put a bird in a cage.
O fool that I am!
For the bird was Truth.
Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
Truth in a cage!
O fool that I am!
For the bird was Truth.
Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
Truth in a cage!
And when I had the bird in the cage,
O fool that I am!
Why, it broke my pretty cage.
Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
Truth in a cage!
O fool that I am!
Why, it broke my pretty cage.
Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
Truth in a cage!
And when the bird was flown from the cage,
O fool that I am!
Why, I had nor bird nor cage.
Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
Truth in a cage!
Heigh-ho! Truth in a cage.
O fool that I am!
Why, I had nor bird nor cage.
Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
Truth in a cage!
Heigh-ho! Truth in a cage.
1 comment:
Be steadfast in your vision of that America Ronald Reagan often employed John Winthrop's phrase "a city on a hill". Reagan spoke of this city in his farewell address. He said:
"The past few days when I've been at that window upstairs, I've thought a bit of the shining "city upon a hill." The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important, because he was an early Pilgrim - an early "Freedom Man." He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little wooden boat, and, like the other pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.
"I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind, it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind swept, God blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace - a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors, and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.
"That's how I saw it, and see it still. How Stands the City?
"And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that: after 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm.
"And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the Pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.
"We've done our part. And as I "walk off into the city streets," a final word to the men and women of the Reagan Revolution - the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back:
"My friends, we did it. We weren't just marking time, we made a difference. We made the city stronger - we made the city freer - and we left her in good hands.
"All in all, not bad. Not bad at all.
"And so, goodbye.
"God bless you. And God bless the United States of America."
Take heart, if Republicans still have a soul they'll return to Reagan's vision. If not they become the White Trash Party of hate, intolerance, and ignorance. It will be the death of the GOP. It will be an ugly death. Cancer is not a beautiful thing when it kills and Trump is only a metastisized tumor on the body politic.
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