By Kenneth Kowald
Here are the comments of my fourth friend, responding to my recent column about my gripes about our society.
Don was born in Manhattan and lives in Denver. For many years, he and his family were residents of Queens. Don began with the following brief list of gripes and then expanded it later:
“There are some things about the world that get my goat:
“1. The unbelievably low state of political discourse, particularly the contributions (?) of the cretins who have taken over the Republican Party.
“2. The dearth of creativity among the present-day composers of classical music.
“3. Ditto popular music since the 1970s.
“4. Ditto the visual arts.
“5. The conversion of air travel into air torture.
“6. The canonization of that second-rate actor and third-rate politician Ronald Reagan.”
Not long after sending me that short list, Don came up with the following:
“1. The American taxpayer who doesn’t know that taxation is the price we pay for civilization, or who has been misled by the Republican Neanderthals into believing ‘there is a free lunch.’ California once had a superb educational system at all levels, but it was severely degraded by the passage of Prop. 13, which sharply cut the revenues which had supported it.” (Don and his family lived in the Bay Area for many years.)
“2. The drivers who honk at me when I slow down at intersections to make sure I turn on the right one.
“3. The people who ridicule President Obama as a ‘wimp’ because he hasn’t accomplished as much as we and he had hoped for.” (I’ve called Obama “The Wimp” many times.) “Never mind that he inherited a terrible situation from Shrub — including two wars, at least one of which was totally unnecessary and for which Bush and Cheney will roast for a long time in hell — and a deep recession that probably will have to run its course. He has not been helped by the gutless members of Congress who run every time that the Republicans scream ‘class warfare.’
“We sure as hell are engaged in a war that is being waged by the very rich on the middle and working classes, and we’d better be prepared to fight it. Barack Obama is certainly the best president we are likely to get for a long, long time. Criticize him if you will — I certainly do — but do not dismiss him. Save that when Rick Perry becomes president and Don and Judy move to Mexico.”
Don wrote this before Perry and others who tried to raise Cain disappeared from the scene and left standing Willard “Mitt” Romney, whomever he may be impersonating today. Is Newton Leroy Gingrich still hanging around as I send this column to the copy editor?
Don and Judy have spent some wonderful vacations in Mexico and Don is the co-author of “Choose Mexico,” a guide to retiring in Mexico.
Next: The gripes of my fifth friend, a native and lifelong resident of Ridgewood.
(I hope you have a chance to check my blog, No Holds Barred, which you will find at timesledger.com.)
