[MB McCart] - The Square Situation, 2nd Report: The Blame Game & Jumping the Shark

"There are two sides to every story & the truth lies somewhere in the middle"

A Commentary by MB McCart

On Monday this publication wrote about the events that transpired on the Covington Square this past Saturday, the 20th.

My write-up then looked to find the "Real Story," or, the rub, if you will. So...let's give it a shot.


*Disclaimer: rhetorical hyperbole, satire & sarcasm quite possibly heavily utilized... 

By Monday, the C-town hubris & dissonance level had hit DEFCON II - "Fast Pace"

I figured it would wane after that. Boy, was I wrong.

We actually made it, for the first time in a very long time, to DEFCON I - "Cocked Pistol"

The recent events represent a true encapsulation of the essence of "C-Town Representin'", "jumping the shark" & turning it up to 11. Somebody's always got to get the blame, and there seems to be, unfortunately, an inherent desire with some of us to see bad things happen to other people; or, at a minimum, a desiring to stir the pot (and the irony of me writing about stirring the pot is not lost on this writer, by the way). Well, bad things happen. And Saturday, as I mentioned in the original piece, just seemed like a Murphy's Law day where everything that could possibly go wrong, unfortunately, did. As I also said then, it seemed as if there was plenty of blame to go all around, and that seems to have only been confirmed.

I was actually tempted to just leave it at that. But, against possible better judgement, I just can't do that.

So...we want to play the blame game? I'm your Huckleberry.

Here's my ranked list for the Blame Awards of the Great Square Incident of 2018:

1. Ralph Staffins, Chamber President. Without a doubt. He was the one, based on all accounts, that actually facilitated, personally, the ill-conceived plan to inform vendors that they were out of compliance & could no longer purvey their wares. It was a bone-headed move. He should have let the event conclude & then started working on a plan of attack with the Square merchants, city officials & others to remedy this situation. Hindsight is, as they say, always 20/20, and I'm sure that Ralph, who seems like a nice fella & a hard worker, wished that he would have done just that.
2. The Event Organizer for Witches Night Out. Lost in the shuffle of the fallout of Saturday's drama is that there IS a provision in the event application (and this has been verified) that states that certain vendors selling certain products are prohibited from setting up at a permitted Square event. Now, we aren't talking about whether or not this is right or proper at this time. Was it part of the permit application? Yes. Whose responsibility was it to check compliance? The Event Organizer, who, according to her posts on Facebook, is one, Rebekah Larson.
3. In terms of this thing becoming the [expletive deleted]- show that it became, you can pin some of the blame on some of the vendors, and their friends, who decided to go into full-on Crusade/Spartacus mode. Now, I can get them being upset. No doubt. I would have been livid if I'd paid a vendor fee & had to shut down early. But after a while it seemed to morph into something else. And, remember, the event was never shut down. In the heat of the moment & as a self-described show of solidarity, several vendors made a decision to leave. And by the way, I wonder if any of these vendors, presuming that they didn't know, asked the Event Organizer why she didn't inform them about it. Finally, at least a couple of these people may have crossed a line & possibly engaged in speech & activity that could be viewed as slanderous. I know of at least a couple of people who say they have spoken with legal counsel. Also, there is someone (or a few someones), that is a member(s) of a certain Facebook group that fanned the flames of this thing big time. It would have never reached the level it did without their help. Hope they feel good about themselves...
4.  If not notified of some of vendors being out of compliance, Ralph Staffins would not have even been at the Covington Square on Saturday. He was contacted by Jack Phillips. I've spoken with Jack, and have spoken with several others who have confirmed his version of the events. Jack never asked for vendors to be removed or for anything to be done on Saturday. He was doing what the Chamber & Main Street had previously asked the merchants to do, which was to notify them of any event that was outside the parameters of the permit issued. And as many Square merchants will tell you, Jack is sort of the de facto spokesperson for the group when it comes to dealing with the city, the Chamber & Main Street. As an aside, Jack's a good guy; I think a lot of him.

So now that we've spread some blame around, let's get back to the Real Story.

People's lives & livelihoods have been affected by this. A young lady working at The Soap Box was verbally assaulted by a angry vendor with others coming in to get their licks in as well. As the evidence seems to suggest, neither the Soap Box, or any other retail stores on the Square, had anything to do with how things played out. Yet now we see multiple people promising to boycott the Covington Square. I've set up a file marking everybody's names I've come across on the book of faces who have publicly stated this. I may very well do an article in the future talking about how certain folks in our community apparently hate local business & would love nothing more to see multiple people hopefully lose their jobs in the near future. Sounds awful & crazy, right? Stay Classy, Covington!

And speaking of the Square, as I mentioned in the original article, they've really been dealing with some major issues & problems. The fact is that many of them simply do not benefit from most events on the Square. They just don't. And you block off the Square, which has happened four times in the last 5 weeks, and it can just wipe them out.

And there are further implications as well. A lot of folks just don't go to the Square anymore. As one person I recently spoke to said, "either it might be closed off, or they're filming, or you you can't get to it because traffic is always terrible." Traffic! An important consideration (*see below).

As I also discussed, many Square merchants feel that the Chamber & Main Street Covington have failed them. So, something needs to get figured out there. I think everyone involved has to find a solution. Perhaps the city needs to take it back over.

I know one thing the city could do to solve this. Reduce the ridiculous fees for Legion Field. Do the same permit pricing as the Square, and we may never have this problem again. 

And one more thing! Adjust the lights at Floyd & Elm + Pace & Usher by just about 5 seconds each, and I think we might be surprised at how much traffic improves on the Square. It's all about flow...

And maybe we should pull in the reigns just a bit on the filming...

That's the way I see it, folks. Let me know what you think in the comments. Hope all is lovely out there. Until next time.

- MB McCart, Editor 

The Piedmont Chronicles

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The Piedmont Chronicles

COVERING THE GLORIOUS GEORGIA PIEDMONT

| Covington, GA | Newton Co. |

[MBM] - Trouble on the Square; What Happened on Saturday?

The Piedmont Chronicles

[UPDATED - 10/22/18; 5:10PM] 
*see below under original piece

This past Saturday, October 20th, a permitted event - Witches Night Out & the Moonlight Dash - was held on the Covington Square from 12 to 9PM. This was the 5th year in a row that this event was held in Covington.

Things, as evidenced by its trending on social media, took a turn for the worse in the afternoon hours when apparently members of Covington Code Enforcement arrived on the scene to give notice that some of the vendors were not able to be present due to purported regulations with the permitting process that is handled by Main Street Covington & the Covington-Newton Chamber of Commerce, namely that vendors set up on the Square cannot sell competing items that are found at one of the Square merchants. No word as to if this is actually codified or not. I'm looking into it...

One thing that has been agreed upon by pretty much everyone involved was that this process was mishandled in very much a tone-deaf manner. In hindsight, things likely should've been handled after the event. Instead, we were left with people crying & at least a few vendors that packed up & left as a show of protest. Sad.

A now-screen-shot-ed, Facebook post that later went semi-viral encapsulated the American time-honored tradition of needing to blame somebody for something. This post pinned all the blame on the owners of The Soap Box & River Outfitters for making the call to get the ball rolling. Two different sources say that Ralph Staffins, president of the Chamber, was the driving force behind getting Code Enforcement involved. Other said other things. It sounds like it just turned into a mess with - again - folks crying, others vowing to boycott ALL of the business on the Square & at least one person who wanted desperately to pin the blame on Mr. Mayor keeping alive the recent Covington tradition of "JDS" - Johnston Derangement Syndrome.

I think something I posted on a FB thread on Sunday pretty much captured the rub:

"Regardless, it seems that it was poorly handled. My sources say that it was the Chamber, ultimately, that was the driving force behind it being mishandled in such a way that several vendors who could have stayed decided to pack up as a show of protest. 

...

And finally, whether if it was handled in a poor manner or not, it does seem that the beginning of the chain of events that caused all of this was a Square business (or businesses) complaining. 

So...plenty of blame to go around, including with the event organizers. 

It looked to be a Murphy’s Law scenario where everything that could go wrong, did. 

Oh well, that’s life. I think everyone’s gonna survive..."

So, we've kind of covered the who, what, where & when of things, the gist, as it were; but what of the "Real Story," that thing TPC prides itself on?  
I believe Saturday was a breaking point for several merchants on the Square. For the third weekend in a row, a major event was being held on the Square. The previous two had seen it blocked off. Saturday saw rolling blocks during the course of the 5K. It's become pretty much a consensus view that many of these events are not benefiting most of the Square businesses. If so, then many of these things are messing up parking & traffic flow while creating adverse conditions for local businesses.

The concerns are nothing new. A merchants' meeting was held several months ago with Main Street & the Chamber voicing these issues & apparently nothing ever got done about it.

And let's go back to the last few months. With the exception of one production, none of the filming  projects paid for businesses' hardships as is customary tradition. They have money in their budgets to cover these expenses, but my sources tell me the deals worked out by the Chamber were bad deals that didn't look out for the interests of the Square merchants. And that, by many accounts, is the big problem right now. If you took a poll right now of local businesses as to their approval of Main Street & The Chamber, it would, based on what I can see, not paint either of those organizations in a positive light.

Again, it seems as if this was a proverbial Murphy's Law day, where everything went wrong. But unfortunately there is a pretty large contingent of folks who seem hell bent on boycotting the Covington Square. Others are upset with the city. Still others blame Main Street Covington, and the Chamber.

It's a bit of a mess.

To get that "Real Story," I think a few questions have to get answered:

1. Is there an actual set of regulations with the permit application spelling out what types of vendors are allowed? This application is under the purview of Main Street Covington.

2. If there are (and I recently saw one of these applications & I don't have any recollection of it), then does blame ultimately fall squarely on the organizers of the event for not having disclosed that to the vendors, or were the vendors themselves at fault for simply ignoring it?

3. Most everyone seems to agree that it was mishandled. Were the code enforcement officers too heavy-handed with their enforcement duties?

I've reached out to several folks & I've got more reaching out to do, so this story is very much developing...

On a final note, I think that maybe a silver lining could be found with this thing. Perhaps the city should take over the scheduling, application acceptance & regulation of the events on the Square. After all, it's Covington that has the IGA with the county for operation of the Square. They've contracted that out to the Chamber, and by extension, Main Street, for the last few years. Might there be too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak? Just let the city handle it.

And I think another part of the real story is this:

There are many out there that think the Covington-Newton Chamber of Commerce & Main Street Covington are not operating the way they should be. That things should be better. Maybe this unfortunate episode will bring to the forefront this situation so that the merchants, citizens, politicians, officials & other stakeholders can get all of this sorted out.

That's all for now. Until next time. 

*UPDATE: 

The Chronicles feel comfortable reporting the following based on a conversation with a very reliable source:

- No City of Covington Code Enforcement officers were involved; CPD was on the scene, but didn't have anything to do with requiring vendors to leave, per sources.

- Ralph Staffins, with the Chamber, allegedly, was the one directly involved with telling certain vendors to leave.

- It is specified in the event application that certain businesses/items are prohibited.

- The Soap Store was not involved with anything to do with reporting the vendors; the only thing they dealt with was an young employee being verbally assaulted by an angry vendor.


DEVELOPING...

- M.B. McCart, Editor 

[Bess Tuggle] - Memoirs of Surviving Children: The Importance of Reading; An Appreciation of King & Poe

I have to let you all know that my grandmother is a -really- bad influence.  She started me off at an early age, and I’ve never been able to get over it.

Ma saved Eagle Stamps from the grocery store.  She got so many stamps, depending on how much she spent for groceries, then licked them and stuck ‘em in a little book.  You could trade them in for whatever you wanted on the list when you got enough stamps.

Ma got me books with the Eagle Stamps, and I got hooked on reading.

When I say hooked I mean I’m “compulsive,” “obsessive,” and have a “voracious” appetite for reading.  

Ma started me off with Samuel Langhorn Clemens (also known as Mark Twain) who wrote Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper and many more.  Then she moved me up to Black Beauty.  My fun really began with Edgar Allen Poe.

Ma got me my first Poe book.  It has the “Folgers” coffee logo on the cover and it’s read to tatters.  It’s still on my bookshelf, and pages will fall out when you try to read it.  Hold on tight and never dog-ear a page.  Toilet paper is the only acceptable bookmark allowed in this house.

Then she got me a Shephen King book.  Oops.  King’s wife might be his biggest fan, but I’m in the run for second place.  

I’m a very sloppy reader.  Intentionally.  A toilet without a magazine on the back is naked, and our kitchen table stays littered with reading material.  National Geographic, Newton Citizen, TIME magazine, the Smithsonian…  Leave it where they can grab it and they –will- read it.

We went through a time that I thought my grandmother was mad at me.  I didn’t get my National Geographic’s anymore!  Turns out my oldest son, Thing 1, was jacking them out of the mailbox.  I would get them, eventually.  They would be a couple months out of date, but I really couldn’t complain.  My child was reading.  That’s a good thing!

Then I got a call from the high school.  Thing 1 had an English assignment.  Bless his teacher’s heart…

The teacher started it with “It was a dark and stormy night” on the board and told the kids to write from that, with the admonition that they should not be graphic.

My oldest was raised on Poe and King.  Let that sink in for a minute.

His teacher was disturbed, to say the least, and he got sent to the counselor’s office before I had a clue what was going on.  Then I got the call from his teacher – and laughed.

The teacher now thought that we were both bonkers, but when she started reading passages from his essay I couldn’t help but laugh even more.  I could quote each and every author and story that he’d gotten his ideas from.  Every single one.

By the time we got off the phone, his teacher was thanking me for getting a teenage boy to read, and we didn’t have to deal with DFACS.  Thankfully.

Folks, leave your newspapers, magazines and books lying around.  It’s one of the best things you can do for the kids.  They –will- pick them up and read.

Oh, and leave the Chronicles on top!  

Bess 

Bess Tuggle

A jack of all trades, Ms. Tuggle has been a Covington resident since the late 70’s. She's been a K-Mart cashier, cabinet builder, vet tech, office manager for a beef cattle ranch and water well company (where she was able to hold benefits for D.A.R.E. and Scouts), a court reporter, business manager, assistant at a private investigation firm, legal assistant, convenience store clerk, landscaper and elementary school substitute teacher.  Her greatest pleasure is being a wife, mother and grandmother.  Her stories are all real, and all names will be withheld to protect the innocent, and also maybe the guilty, depending on the crime & the Statute of Limitations.  

|||||||

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[Perrin Lovett] - TION 101: Regulation, Taxation, and Inflation

Somewhere, a professor concludes a lecture on political economy and economic politics.

----------

‘So, class, to wrap things up, the government and its allies - the other enemies of the free people - always engage in three insidious activities. All three loot actual productive value from the highest and best uses of capital, shifting it into various schemes, all of them nefarious. All three eat away at the economy. All three amount to forcible theft. Slavery, we could even rightly call it.

‘The stolen money, the stolen value is used to buy votes via illegal programs. It beats down innovation and competition from start-ups. It enriches and empowers the few at the expense of the many. Evil. To. The. Core.

‘And, again, I call these the three “tions.” That’s spelled “t-i-o-n-s,” pronounced “shuns, s-h-u-n-s.” And, shun these mechanisms of cultural destruction we should.

‘Again, they are: regulation, taxation, and inflation.

‘Taxation is the most obvious of the evil trio. Pay them what you’re told or else men with guns will literally come and take it by force - up to and including deadly force - if necessary. And for all they tax, they still spend more.

‘Think about this: King George demanded the aggregate equivalent of a one to two percent income tax, and that only affecting certain industries and persons. What do we pay Washington these days? Ten, twenty, thirty percent? Was as high as ninety at one time.

‘Regulation affects everything. This category is a bill of goods, sold to the enstupidated masses under the guise of “protection.” We know the only people protected are the government agents whose jobs depend on enforcement - more men with guns - and the wealthy businesses who write the laws and regulations.

‘Remember that the next time you’re tempted to vote. You’ve been sold out. They simply do not care about you. After the election dust settles and the pleasant lies subside, it’s back to business as usual. Government of, by, and for the corporations.

‘For an age and a half, politicians - especially “conservatives” - have railed and ranted about cutting the size and scope of the theft. They haven’t. Anymore, they don’t even try to retard the rate of growth. Sellouts, all.

‘All except one, maybe. The oddest thing has happened. For once we have, in power, a man willing to at least try what he boasts. And, most incredible of all, he’s seemingly getting results. Donald John Trump said he would cut taxes and regulations. And then … he cut taxes and regulations.

‘The tax cuts - decried as radical - were, to me, most modest. Still, modest beats nothing. But the regs. Those he’s been feeding into the wood chipper.

‘And the economy has answered. BOOM! (For now…)

‘The Congress, well not so much. Those fools keep spending and there’s never enough. With all the cuts, the economy is predictably growing. That means higher tax revenues - with and from lower tax rates. But the idiots spend even more. More debt. More debt. And then, some more debt. And the debt is a problem. Someone once wrote something about that… That was a truth and a joke.... Ah, well. (*Sigh*)

‘The debt goes hand in hand, hand on hammer, with the third “tion,” inflation. But, maybe, just maybe, Trump is about to address that too.

‘Up until now, he’s tolerated both the machinations of the Fed and the spendthrift stupidity of the legislative branch. Here’s to hoping that that’s about to change.

‘The other day, in typical Trump-Twitter fashion, the President accurately described the Fed criminals as “loco.” That’s el-Spanish for “crazy.”

‘And it is crazy. Central banking, as we’ve already noted, is always, always, always an insane suicide pact. Cheap, easy money today, misery tomorrow and for years to come. Theft and slavery, writ large. Cut taxes to Constitutional levels - to zero - and pare down the regulators to levels acceptable in 1787 and, if you keep up the funny money and debt, you still come to utter ruin. Eventually.

‘So. Really wrapping it up here. Let’s hope Trump smashes the locos! Amirite?

As the good and learned professor looked upon the gathered young faces, an uncertain hand rose from the throng.

‘Yes, young Sir,’ cued the professor.

A small voice answered, ‘My. My. My shoe is untied.’

‘Teddy called Tommy a bad word!’ called out another tiny voice unsolicited.

‘Um,’ stammered the old academic, ‘Well. Let’s just. Okay! Class is dismissed! Your teacher will now help you out to the buses … and … so forth. Down with the “tions!”’

Slightly dismayed by the blank stares in Ms. Hiccup’s third-grade classroom, Professor Wahrheit collected his things and departed the Immanuel Kant Comprehensive Elementary School for the Arts and STEM Inclusion Learning.

A foursome of deer, ambling about on business of their own, encountered Wahrheit midway along his long walk home. ‘The man seems troubled,’ thought the lead doe. But the “tions” simply were not her concern. With a sniff and a bound she was gone. Three smaller females followed. Warheit, still walking, didn’t even notice.

Who, really, notices what?

Picture by Perrin.

Perrin Lovett 

Fellow Terry College of Business (UGA) grad Brother Perrin Lovett is a true renaissance gentleman & scholar. A recovering attorney, he's into guns & cigars, and the US Constitution. A published author, Prepper columnist & YouTube personality, and an acclaimed blogger, TPC is very proud to have our old friend on board as the C.F. Floyd Feature Writer of National Affairs. 

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COVERING THE GLORIOUS GEORGIA PIEDMONT

| Covington, GA | Newton Co. |

[Ellis Millsaps] - Chapter One: The Belly of the Whale

It all begins with the church. I could say that my family came first, two older parents and four sisters, the youngest of whom was eleven years my senior, but the church and my family were mere extensions of each other.

The church was Atco Baptist Church where my father was the pastor, my mother led the WMU and my sisters led youth groups and sang as a quartet on Sunday. I lived in this church until I turned six and we became another church. Until I graduated high school I averaged attending church at least five times per week.

With the exception of the Little Golden Books my mother regularly bought and read to me (Little Black Sambo comes first to mind) until the television came and changed my world (I clearly remember the day the huge thing was delivered on the back of a truck) the only stories I knew were Bible stories and I knew them well.

With the exception of a few campfire songs my sisters introduced, the only songs I knew were church songs. The movements that accompanied “Deep and Wide” and “This Little Light of Mine” were as close as I came to dance or theater (the Hokey Pokey didn’t come until the television arrived).

I lived in a world where Adam and Eve were historical figures. The Bible was a work that captured the history of the world from creation until the deaths of all the apostles. I believed that Jonah lived in the belly of a whale.

This is somewhat hard for me to envision today. I know there are small children who believe this today, but I picture them living in cults in Idaho.

The Southern Baptist Church in the 1950’s was not a cult as we think of that term. It was and is the largest protestant denomination and it was more progressive than today. One example: the Southern Baptist Convention approved Roe v. Wade when it became law. This was the church in which Bill Moyers was a pastor.

They weren’t down with drinking, “gossip and backbiting,” at least on paper, which brings to mind the old joke, Q: Why do Baptists not fornicate standing up? A: They’re afraid someone will see them and think they’re dancing.

But they weren’t down with dancing especially. After the TV came, my mother who years later wouldn’t let me listen to the Beatles sing “Twist and Shout” because she thought it was so sexually suggestive, showed me how to do the twist because she’d seen instructions on television: you pretend you’re drying your rear with a towel while putting out a cigarette with your foot.

 Ellis Millsaps

Ellis is a recovering Attorney but has worn many hats over the years: father, bus boy, stand-up comedian, novelist, wiffle ball player, rock'n'roll band manager, and at one time wrote a popular and funny column for The Covington News. A Fannin Co. mountain boy originally, Mr. Millsaps now stays at the mill village of Porterdale by way of 20 years in Mansfield. Usually funny and at times irreverent and subversive, he leans left in his political philosophy but can always be counted on for a pretty darn good write-up. The Chronicles are proud to have him involved... 

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[Bess Tuggle] - Memoirs of Surviving Children: The Ghost

We have a ghost.

Really, we have a ghost that resides with us. Her name is Gabriella, Gabby for short, and she’s usually a really good tenant. Usually.

The only problem we seem to have is when the kids come home to visit, especially the youngest one.

Thing 4 is the reason she decided to reside here. They’re good buddies. We all live peacefully together, until he brings a couple of his other friend’s home.

Jack Daniels and Jim Beam are the worst of the friends he invites. She gets up to ALL kinds of Shenanigans then!

We’ve had the hall rug rolled up to block the hallway bathroom. Change-catcher bowls turned upside down. Salt put into the pepper shaker and pepper put into the salt shaker (she had a little help with that one).

There was another time (again, she had some help) that EVERY SINGLE PICTURE in our house was turned side-ways or upside-down.

Our bathrooms have been fogged. For anyone that doesn’t know what a fog machine is, just know you shouldn’t get one. They create a “clean,” fun, fog, and I’ve been cleaning the drippings off the walls for –years-. Both bathrooms and Thing 4’s old bedroom still have stains from it.

I plan to catch Gabby. It’s time she moved to her best buddy’s place. I’m pretty sure she’ll enjoy it there.

With any luck, she’ll become good friends with my granddaughter and they can torture her father together.

Bess 

PS: All my children are of legal age, know not to drink and drive (Mama will kick their ass if they even think about it), but some of the stuff they’ve put me through as adults were tougher to deal with than when they were babies. Payback, or Karma, is a WONDERFUL thing! I wish them all children JUST LIKE THEM. Babysitting rates will be applied accordingly.

- Bess Tuggle

    

  

A jack of all trades, Ms. Tuggle has been a Covington resident since the late 70’s. She's been a K-Mart cashier, cabinet builder, vet tech, office manager for a beef cattle ranch and water well company (where she was able to hold benefits for D.A.R.E. and Scouts), a court reporter, business manager, assistant at a private investigation firm, legal assistant, convenience store clerk, landscaper and elementary school substitute teacher.  Her greatest pleasure is being a wife, mother and grandmother.  Her stories are all real, and all names will be withheld to protect the innocent, and also maybe the guilty, depending on the crime & the Statute of Limitations.  

[Perrin Lovett] - Double-Hitter: Democracy in America & Tolerating Totalitarian Tolerance

Democracy in America: A Charming Children’s Story

(Originally published Sunday, May 17, 2015 at www.perrinlovett.me).

*****

I wrote this one a while back. M.B. always liked it and he’s been hounding me to repost it here. So, here goes. I reread and, in addition to still seeming funny, it’s still relevant. A few minor changes have been made to the body; at the end, you will find a short “update” commentary. Enjoy.

*****

Last week I mentioned that an election was coming.  I also presented my own favorite candidate – Frank the Frog.  Frank will not win and the election is in vain.  Vote if you care. I don’t.

The Illustrious Barry Hussein El Islam Muhammad Obama the Magnificent has finished the job begun by his predecessors – the country is in ruins.  For his replacement, the Democrats have dug to the very bottom of the bag of wrinkled has-beens, to one Hillary Clinton, the wife of “good times” Bill, the Slickster.

The Republicans have other, similar ideas.  They would foist upon the people yet a third member of the Bush clan.  Obviously, the people are okay with two families maintaining a grip on national power for two or three or five decades.  Their business. Is there some national obsession with rats and roaches of which I am not completely aware?

In Iowa, the Republicans “think they must soften their image and expand their appeal in particular to women and Latino voters.”  I assume women and Latinos enjoy constant war, perpetual debt and crushing loads of government buffoonery.  Again, their business.

No one learns.  Ten thousand years of history demonstrate unequivocally that government does not work. Yet and still… Democrats love it. Republicans love it.  The people hoot and holler for it like chimps in a cage.

(Image: Google.)

Such fairy tales are humorous but foolish when taken seriously.  If the Democrats false egalitarianism had been real thirty years ago things might be better today.  If flag-worshipping Republicans actually had sought freedom, things might be better. In reality, their lies and deceit have done us in.

Following his in-depth observations of early nineteenth-century America, Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville, wrote Democracy in America, 1835.  The book is a masterful account of the political and demographic expanse of early America.

De Tocqueville wrote of the three races in the new world at that time: whites, blacks, and indians.  He proposed that whites and blacks would have to get along together in a future in which they formed the vast majority of the populace.  The fate of the native people seemed doubtful to Tocqueville. Sensing there would be unnecessary, faction-based strife among the people for years to come, he refrained from any ultimate prediction in favor of a “time will tell” conclusion.

Time has told.  Following the two major parties, the people have chosen a sort of mass suicide followed by uncertain government-managed life support.  Currently, while the bloated carcass of the American public drools on the gurney, the plug is being pulled.

This all leads me to a charming little tale, told in the far distant future.

In the cold winter of 3187, in the nation of Utopia, two young children dined with their dear old grandfather.  Following the meal, the children enjoyed a brief holographic conversation with their parents. Mom and Dad were enjoying a well-deserved vacation on Mars.

As the evening deepened outside Grandpa built a cozy fire on the hearth.

“Come and tell me about your school day,” he eagerly beckoned.  Little Timmy and Suzy recounted with wonder the day’s history lesson.  “Teacher read to us from an old book by Alex Me Folkville!,” volunteered Timmy.  “It was all about the ancient Americans,” exclaimed Suzy.

Timmy inquired of the smiling old man, “Have you ever heard of the Americans?”

“Yes, they were once a great people,” said Grandpa with a sigh.

“What happened to them,” asked Suzy, snuggling under Grandpa’s flannel-clad arm.

(A future history unfolds. Image: Google.)

“Well, if you really want to know, I can tell you of the Americans and their strange fate,”  Grandpa began.