A Wonderful, Early, Unintended Political Birthday Present!

 

Yesterday, July 19, 2023, we spent most of the day in the general area of Morehead, Kentucky, and got home late, about 5pm after I had hiked for an hour and ten minutes at the Minor E. Clark Fish Hatchery which sits just below the spillway of Cave Run Lake; then we went to Wal Mart and Kroger to stock up on groceries, etc. I had already had a good day for several reasons.  I had spent time with my wife, Candice, and I had hiked to the hatchery from the spillway area in the company of the man who supervises the transportation of the fish they raise there to about half the state of Kentucky.  We had a good talk and hike on his way to work and my way to hike.  He answered several of my perpetual questions about the operations of the hatchery including telling me that they raise a lot of gold fish to feed the muskellunge they breed for stocking lakes.  I had previously seen goldfish in some concrete holding tanks on the property but had never understood exactly why they had them there.  I had thought that since they are a form of carp they might have been keeping them to help keep tanks clean.  But actually, they are just another version of the fattening hog for the muskellunge.  Then I hiked on around several of the 84 growing ponds the hatchery uses to finish the fish they produce.  I saw a lot of bird during that time which I don't always see there because I am hiking constantly and not paying attention to the tree lines and sometimes flush birds before I can clearly identify them.   I saw a flock of about 24 Canada Geese, about 18 American Crows, 6 Killdeer which are actually one of my favorite birds, and I was able to identify my first Green Heron.  

Then when I got home, I found a small envelope in my mail box with the return address of Betty Lynn on it which I had known was coming in some form or other since Betty had told me on Facebook that she was sending me something she had found in her large collection of memorabilia from a long career at Berea College where she worked as a secretary for many years.  I opened the envelope and quickly realized that Betty knows me well and had chosen to give me a perfect birthday gift. It was a single sheet of aged, yellowed, frazzled paper with a poem written on it in blue mimeograph ink and the letterhead of Berea College on the other side.  It is a rhyming poem of 7 stanza each composed of 2 rhyming couplets by an unknown author who was most likely an employee of Berea College in the 1950's when it was written.  I will include it at the bottom of this blog post but let me say in advance it if funny and well located at this time in American History because it puts our current political problems in a good perspective and shows us that while the Republican party never had the best intentions in mind for the majority of our citizens they were surely not the absolute criminals in 1952 that they are today.  The man who is the primary topic of this poem was definitely not anywhere near the level of pond scum that TRAITOR Trump is and always has been.  

 

 

Here is the poem in its entirety: 

THE REPUBLICANS

The Republican's seed sprouted and grew, 

In the simple minds of quite a few.

Some are nuts about whom they like

And made up their minds to vote for Ike. 

They've promised a lot and they'll promise more

Let's look and see what they did before.

Twenty years have passed, and yet,

Those Hoover Days I'll  never forget.

When Hoover was in I lived on the farm.

A dollar bill looked as long as my arm.

I never saw a ten dollar bill, 

And, if Ike is elected, I doubt if I will.

When Hoover was in, things were really tight. 

The rabbits were scarce and the fish wouldn't bite.

The men too ragged to go anywhere,

And the women wore flour sack underwear.

Remember me when you cast your vote.

If you vote for Ike, you'll cut your throat.

Would you rather have a life of ease

Or water gravy and black-eyed peas?

Since nineteen hundred and thirty-two

The Republican party has been in a stew.

They've called the Democrats nasty names, 

But the banks stay open just the same.

If Ike is elected, I'll move to the farm.

I'll plant some taters behind the barn; 

I'll steal my neighbor's roasting ears, 

I'll try to get by for four more years.

Author Unknown, Berea College, 1952

While this might not be great poetry, it is above average political doggerel and it points out the very clear differences between the Republican Party of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Right Wing Radical Repugnican Party of TREASON, hatred, criminality, and disgust it has become since 1952.  While Eisenhower was not anywhere near the best, or even one of the best, presidents we ever had, he was a patriot, was a major player in winning World War II and was elected twice.  His most important achievement was beginning what became the interstate highway system which he envisioned while fighting across Europe against Adolf Hitler.  No, Eisenhower was not perfect.  But he was also not perfectly imperfect as TRAITOR Trump proves on a daily basis that he is.  While the country did not prosper as it should have during the administration of Eisenhower, it was never in mortal peril as it has been every day since TRAITOR Trump listened to his Russian master Vladimir Putin and consented to be the TREASONOUS beneficiary of as stolen US election.  While Eisenhower accomplished little in the White House other than the interstate highway system's birth, he never engaged in the kind of crime spree his vice president Richard Nixon did you just a few short years later. Dwight D. Eisenhower was a man of honor, a general of great military achievements, a man who could have been trusted to be in a room alone with a teenage girl.  TRAITOR Trump can not point to any actual achievements other than having become the greatest TRAITOR in the history of the world. America must realize that there is some truth in the little poem above.  But the most valuable thing in that poem is a chance to compare the last decent Republican in America to the worst TRAITOR in the history of the world, TRAITOR Trump.  We must learn from the comparison and we must send that TRAITOR to federal prison for his crimes against America, the American people, and the world.