A few years ago, I received an E-mail from the Speaker of the House of the State of Florida telling me how much he and his party had done for me and how much they needed my donations to continue their fine work on my behalf. ( GAG HERE! ) Below is my response.
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Honored Sir,
If a group of people had to cross a large expanse of desert with only as much water as they could carry on their persons, the logical approach would be for each to carry an amount proportionate with his or her strength. Smaller children and the very old or infirm with one canteen, older children and the more hardy of the elderly with two, and so on, with the strongest of the group carrying eight or ten. This would obviously maximize the group's potential for water transport. It's a simple concept.
Florida is becoming an increasingly arid zone, fiscally speaking, yet the strongest of our group constantly whines at the prospect of a proportionate load. They consistently try to shirk their responsibility, seeking always to pass off more and more of their burden to the less hardy members of the group.
These are of course the wealthy upper crust of the financial food chain, the same Big Money interests which bankrolled the preponderance of those of you allegedly serving US. You haven't the courage to bite the hand that fed you, for fear that it will feed you no more. You are cowered by the certain knowledge that if you stand up to them and begin to close the loop holes that apply only to the wealthy, they, at the next election will decry you as a TAXING POLITICIAN! Yes, they will, but I and many other Floridians of any and all parties would embrace you as a leader of courage and conviction.
On a similar vein your tax cuts almost invariably benefit the wealthy far more than the average family in Florida. If someone can afford a "Sky Box" at an arena, they can certainly afford to pay the taxes on the purchase! If Big Business can reap huge profits at the expense of OUR environment, then THEY can certainly afford to pay the cost of repairing the damage they've done. This WAS MANDATED by overwhelming voter response, but has YET to be enforced by the Corporate Lapdogs who allegedly serve US! They have a moral compass, but it points to the greatest concentration of GOLD!
I enjoin you, Sir, to rise above it! I enjoin you to be the one, with the courage and conviction of a Just Cause, to stand up and say, "NO MORE!" I implore you, on behalf of my children, indeed, on behalf of all the children in Florida's ABYSMALLY NEGLECTED AND UNDERFUNDED public school system, to be the Leader with the Vision and Honor to lead, not in the direction of the trough, but in the direction of a brighter day. I ask you to be the FIRST in Tallahassee to initiate ACTUAL repair on our school system. FORGET VOUCHERS! First, our taxes should NEVER be doled out to secular schools, and ,second, you don't fix a bus by giving people cab fare! Just fix the bus! And BE THE FIRST TO FIX YOUR COMPASS!
You can drape a manure truck in American flags, but we all still know what's in the truck. The smell makes it readily apparent, and it's HIGHLY disrespectful to the flag, as well as insulting to everyone you believed stupid enough to be fooled by it.
Please, rise above it!
Yours, still respectfully, if wavering,
D. A. Sherman
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Author's Note: You may notice that NOT ONE of my reasonable requests was taken to heart. Our taxes STILL fall disproportionately on those less able to bear the weight. Corporations which are supposedly reined in by our State Government, instead run amok and trample the will and the wallets of the voters.
The Sugar Industry has been EXCUSED from the court mandated timetable for its participation in, and PAYMENT for, the clean-up of the Florida Everglades. The Federal Government warned that if this was done then ALL MATCHING FEDERAL FUNDS WOULD BE WITHHELD! The Republicans in power didn't care. They let them off the hook anyway. Then, Charlie Crist had the GALL, during the recent gubernatorial debates to blame Jim Davis for the lack of Federal funding in this area! CRIST, YOU LYING BASTARD!
Our schools are still in dire straits. Our literacy rate is dropping, and our drop-out rate is rising, and all the while our State Government CUTS SCHOOL FUNDING MORE! Governor Bush has repeatedly IGNORED a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT limiting classroom size in the State of Florida. How is that NOT a crime? Because the people who are supposed to uphold the Law, the people who are supposed to enforce the Will of the People, the people who are supposed to prosecute crimes, don't give a SHIT! That's how. For example, say the Attorney General of the state, Charlie Crist, is a bought-and-paid-for CO-CONSPIRATOR with the same Governor that is committing the crime in the first place!
It seems the "Midas Compass" is still working JUST THE WAY THEY WANT!
(You will note that "The Respect" is now shot all to hell.)
D. Allen Sherman
My Native Tongue
Anyone who has ever traveled to a foreign country where theirs is not the prevalent language, has probably noticed that they can hear their mother tongue spoken even across a crowded and noisy room. My ears are keener still, for I can hear my native tongue spoken from 4 blocks away! My native tongue is Bullshit.
When, in the same foreign country, a native of that land tries to converse with you in your own language, you appreciate the effort, regardless of how clumsy their attempt may be. After a while, however, even the most polite traveler, may note that prolonged exposure to the butchering of their mother tongue tends to grate on one's ear. In this, I am no different. While I appreciate those of you who try to speak proper Bullshit to me, after successive clumsy attempts, it does offend my ear.
For this reason, I shall try to confine my musings to English, but, should I occasionally lapse into my Native Tongue, please, bear with me and do not feel obliged to join me on a similar linguistic tangent.
If this note offends you, you should probably leave now, before my thoughts on Religion and Politics cause you serious distress.
Tears and Rage
When I was a child I was taught of America. It was a Fabled Land where the milk and honey of Freedom ran in the streets, conceived by an idealistic people who, having felt themselves oppressed for so long, rose up and threw out their oppressors. It was born of a miracle of courage and determination that led landed gentry and peasant farmers, merchants and tradesmen, Protestants and Catholics to see beyond their personal differences, band together, and rise up as one, declaring to the world, "We will bear the yoke of tyranny no more!"
And I believed. From the spacious skies to the amber waves of grain, I believed. I was fortunate enough to be able to travel this land from sea to shining sea, and I believed. Then I saw poverty and hunger. I saw ignorance and bigotry. I saw hatred. I asked how these could exist in such a glorious and just land, and, much like the boy who could not see the Emperor's New Clothes, I was shushed. So I did as I was told, and I was quiet. I did as I has been taught, and I believed. I still do.
The words that will follow in this place do not evince any change in that belief. Rather, it is as a result of that belief that I feel compelled to write them now. If you have known something precious when it was bright and new, and then you see it tarnished and worn, even cast down in the mud and trampled upon, do you not weep to see its abuse and do everything in your power to lift it up and repair it as best you can? If you know that abuse to be deliberate, do you not feel rage?
I see this Fabled Land, once a shining beacon in the night to the oppressed throughout the world, now tarnished and soiled. Her noble flag, woven of hope in the face of despair, and defended with the blood of her Heroes, that blessed Star Spangled Banner, I see now tattered and worn. I weep to see these abuses, and I would repair them. I see the sacred parchments of "We the People" and the precious ideals they espouse cast down in the mud and wantonly trampled. I see the very precepts upon which this nation was founded twisted and betrayed for personal gain, and I rage!
This does not mean that my belief has been lessened. My Faith in this nation and that for which it once stood is stronger than ever. It is those things for which it has been made to stand that give me pause. It is the flagrant usurpation of individual freedoms, once held so dear, that move me to tears. It is the brazen betrayal of the public trust for political and financial gain which leads me to rage! I am not moved to such strong emotions by any weakening of my belief, but rather by its strength.
I still believe. But I also still see, and, unlike that child who questioned so long ago, I will no longer be shushed. The Emperor has NO new clothes! In fact, he's stealing yours! These are my tears. This is my rage. Where, in the name of all that is right, and just, and decent, are yours?
Monday, December 11, 2006
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