Who Elected Obama President?

"Us, our group, we did it -- without our votes he wouldn' be --"
"Hold on, wait a cotton-picking minute, think of what you're saying --"
"We know what we're saying -- everybody knows  it and is saying it --"
"But what about the other groups that voted --"
"Our votes put him over the top --"
"Without the hundreds of thousands of votes from other groups, what would your votes have been worth?"
"We're not talking 'what if,' we're talking 'what was reality,' 'what is reality'--"
"Okay, then what if someone from your group becomes a candidate for President, you gonna vote for him?"
"Of course. He's one of us, he knows what we want, he --"
"But what if people from other groups don't vote for him, you think just your votes can elect him?"
"Well, uh, we -- see, there you go with that 'what if ' stuff again . . ."
"No, I'm talking about someone being a President of all Americans, not just President of this group or that group."
"I still say he owes us for out votes -- and he has to give us what we want or we're gonna make his Party an 'offer they can't refuse' . . ."
"Oh, so you're gonna hijack millions of Americans through their political party?  You don't vote for a man or woman because he or she is good for our country, you vote for him or her because he or she is good for your group."

Jus' Noise

"But how did you get all those scars on your forehead, your nose and your cheeks?"
"It's a wonder we ain't all dead."
"You can't control yourselves?"
"You identify with those Afrikans who got free rides as slaves on boats to the Americas?"
"Of course."
"Then you know that back in the bush-country we wuz taught to always make lots of noise 'cause if you suddenly turned and somebody was standing next to you and you hadn't heard 'em come up, they could be an evil spirit that had slipped up on you."
"So . . ?"
"For example, when I first got to the United States, I was always going to a hospital."
"You got some disease?"
"I jus' ain't used to people not making a lot of noise -- and other people don' make a lot of unnecessary noise like we do.  We jus' open our mouth and anythang might come out."
"Like that screaming crap they call music that they play at fast-food places?  Makes you wanna shout, 'Go off some place and die with your whining for love!'"
"I was looking up at this tall building and out of the corner of my eye I saw this guy standing beside me and looking at me as if wondering what I was looking at.  I hadn't heard him come up and I jumped through a store-front window, woke up in a hospital.  It's scary, can make you walk around with strange expressions on your face."
"So that's why so many of our people walk around looking puzzled, lost, or angry?"
"Not always . . . some peoples is jus' ugly."
"And wanting everybody to hear them talking loud over those cell-pnones."
"Jus' noise."
"Like Muslim terrorists screaming, 'Kill all Americans and Jews!' while calling themselves righteous people?"
"Jus' noise."

The Quiet Eye

That night in bed he knew of death.  It came as does a dream.  Stood him at a kitchen sink in an old gray two-room house.  An intense darkness filled the house and the streets and other houses.  He could not see any part of his body, as if only his mind were there in that blackness.  Dangerous, even being in a house in this total darkness, he thought.

He heard the door to the living room behind him creak, as if it opened an inch or two.  He tensed, holding his breath, wanted to look behind him, but was afraid of what might be there in the darkness.  The door creaked again, as if opening another inch or two.  He couldn' just stand there and allow something or somebody to grab him.  He jerked around, seeing half of his face with its eye staring at him from behind the door.  Startled and scared and at the same time he fell to the floor on his hands and knees.  How could he see such a sight or anything in that total darkness?  Why was half his face staring around the door at him?  Didn' he already know that he had eyes, arms, legs?  He used them constantly, day and night.  Never thought about them unless they hurt or something . . . THANKSGIVING!

Goofit

"You've been talking this crap for the ten years we've been in this prison . . ."
"But it's true, I'm here 'cause of what these racists done to me and my ancestors --"
"And you had nothing to do with acquiring that gun that you robbed that poor old woman with, then pulled the trigger on her, killing her, because she didn' have but three dollars and some change?"
"I had no power over that.  It was planned far back in time to happen."
"Well, what about your ancestors who sold their own people into slavery, that was planned far back in time?"
"Now wait, you need understanding.  You see, I identify with those who got off those slave boats and not with anybody else, especially those who sold us -- you see . . ."
"What about Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini and Tojo and Big Daddy Amin and all those ignorant dictators in Asia, Afrika, and Latin America down through the centuries, they couldn' help being corrupt and evil?  And what about all these Muslim terrorists screaming 'Kill the Americans and the Jews?' "
" . . . Well, uh, like I said, you need understanding . . ."
"And you're gonna tell the parole board that they need understanding?"
"Sho'nuff -- it's the truth."
"And if they deny you again?"
"It's 'cause they wrong, they's unjust . . ."
"You ever been to Goofit?"
"Naw.  Where is it?"
"Your next stop, the nut house."

MALALA

Shades of the american woman cometh to mind.  Not until twenty years into the 20th century did she win the battle to vote.  She won it after years of risking her life -- as a human and an American citizen -- protesting against being denied equal rights with male citizens.  She won it after years of being beaten bloody and stoned in her protest marches, some being burned alive in buildings set afire where she dared raise her voice not only against her mistreatment but against the institution of slavery and other injustices in society.  She won it while those "holier-than-thou" prayed against her on waking each day, prayed against her at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and prayed against her before crawling into bed at night.

Will those "holier-than-thou" enemies of Malala admit to the evil of their persecution of women or will they go on being the scum representing the ignorance of the Dark Ages by savagely cutting off women's noses, lashing women with whips, and burying them up to their necks and stoning them to death and shooting them in the head -- as they did the innocent 14-year-old Malala -- for wanting the right to be educated in the 21st century?

When Smiles Mean . . .

They had trained, practiced, and each felt prepared to send the other into a horizontal position.  They were on stage now, the center of attention.  They walk confidently to each other -- the usual four ropes marking the boundary of combat are absent in this battle.  They extend their hands -- without gloves.  They're wearing suits and ties, and they're smiling -- smiling?  When have we seen a fighter smiling as he tries to dominate his opponent with an unblinking, freezing stare?  The referee is there to assure that the fighters fight by the rules.  He or she is seated at a desk -- seated at a desk?  A referee?

Even as a crushing punch -- straight to the jaw or an unhinging blow is unleashed to the solar plexus the giver and the receiver smile -- smile?  The spectators react happily or sadly for their respective contender.  It's as if by some kinetic mix-up the impact of the blows have swerved from the giver and the receiver to the spectators.  But that's only when smiles mean mean smiles.

They'er Here

Lines of men, women, and children circled city blocks in the largest cities in European and American countries.  Frowns of awe were on their faces as they looked at her wherever they displayed her body.  "But she was in the prime of life, so lovely -- how could she just die?" was the gist of one view of death.

Now some people -- once thought to be dead -- are known by many to be thousands of years old.  And mentioning what these people are still doing  will be more proof of their age than meeting them.  We see one each time we breath or look in a mirror or think of a relative.

In the Americas, Columbus made us possible; Presidents Washingtion and Lincoln, and those who wrote the Constitution of the United States kept us -- and keep us -- going.  Thanks, guys.