Clear and clean

This evening, there will be an op-

portunity to listen to the first

President of the United States, ev-

er to seek election on the basis

of securing actual rights which did

not exist until he fought for them

and won them.

Self-quotation is abhorrent, pom-

pous, and rhetorically feeble. But

I cite the opening statement of a

posting I offered in 2012, for the

timeliness of the notice, and dis-

piritingly, for the certainty of

the longevity of its validity. We

are not seeming to desire leaders

like this, and so it would be re-

miss not to remember the claims of

the alternative --

                   At the same time, it is striking, that

              he is implacably opposed by one Party

              which vows to destroy each of these

              rights, and that their policies still

              draw mesmerised attention. Who is anim-

              ated in this land, every day on get-

              ting out of bed, by the prospect of

              destroying someone's life as a matter

              of political satisfaction?

I don't know the answer to that

question, but I know who their

heroes are. I know, too, they've

vowed to disavow a sound modus

vivendi he has structured, lead-

ing a consensus of the world, in

relations with a powerful Gulf

state. I know, they've vowed to

disavow a humane interaction with

a state we've done everything pos-

sible to crush, in our own neigh-

bourhood. I know they loathe the

calm he projects for its stature.

I know they are proud of it all,

and I know they need to harm.

I am listening to this President

for my lifetime's anticipation of

exactly his character of official

conduct in my country, one fine

day. My parents saw it, I do not

know whose children will.

ii  Keith Vaughan

    1939