I have developed this friendship with a person who shall remain nameless on the Blog, if for no other reason than word getting out of our friendship could endanger his professional future. Suffice to say he is well-connected to the president on both a policy and friendship basis. My initial reaction to meeting people on this level is to trust but verify, even though I tend to idolize them too much at first. Usually I am wrong and they turn out to be a big of a jerk with no redeeming qualities. Like Schwarzenegger turned out to be. Whoops, I mentioned him – how indiscreet I am. Oh well.
On the flip side to my state’s governor is my friend. He shows no sign of being anything other than decent, caring, modest, and accessible. The reason I bring him up is twofold: To disprove the myth peddled by my democrat friends that all those working for the president are evil neo-cons focused on taking over the world and stealing the last nickel from the working poor. And, to make it worse for my dem friends – and you know who you are – is that he tells me there are some other good people working within the inner-circle of the presidency, including those who are considered by many as evil-incarnate. If my friend continues to stand on the pedestal where I have planted him, I’ll take his judgment over others in the Fourth Estate and those with a dubious agenda. My friend was also honest about others he doesn’t feel so charitable about and I suspect it wouldn’t take Kellen long to figure out who he was talking about as you can just follow the trail of bodies. At least he didn’t kill his wife at the convention.
The second reason for bringing this up is to mention the very kind thing my friend does for his brother who has been a paraplegic or quadriplegic for 30 years due to a trampoline accident (yes, Em, it can happen). We were together on the trip to Moscow and he was supposed to keep a tradition going of collecting a piece of the Earth he travels on for the brother who can’t. It turns out my friend is quite forgetful having left his ATM card at a teller machine in Moscow (and failing to cancel it so now some Russian has just bought a car and a year’s supply of vodka), and also left behind his hat and gloves. And he forgot to pick up the dirt. So he wrote me and asked if I would rummage around and liberate a rock or two and send it to him so he could keep his tradition going.
After what happened to Bill, who am to refuse keeping alive a brother-to-brother bond? So I decided I would walk to the Kremlin wall and, once there, figure out how to chisel off a piece without being arrested. I was just about to give the wall a few well-placed kicks when I noticed two chips of the wall resting on the ground. Now I don’t know if this qualifies as a rock, so I picked up some of them too, but I hope his brother will be able to appreciate the feel of something that he will never be able to see.
Perhaps this is a victory for the good guys. I’ll keep you posted.
2 comments:
You mentioned in your posting that Democrats believe, among other things, that Republicans are intent on "stealing the last nickel from the working poor." Well, how about this?! Democrat New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has a plan to take every last nickel from the working AND non-working poor...you know, the ones who suffered so much during Hurricane Katrina and who are receiving cash and other aid from the government. His plan? The classic "tax the poor" scheme: build a casino zone near the historic French Quarter. The only thing missing to completely liberate the poor from their money is to set up a special, state-run "Katrina Lotto"! Brilliant. This way Nagin can not only receive bailout money from George W's Federal Government but he can also take money from the poor and destitute that they receive from the Federal Government. Is that called double-dipping?
Right you are my bright little star.
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