Money Makes the Pony Run

Good morning, y’all. It’s been so refreshing being able to get out and do my little walk around the loop here at TackyToo. I can fight the masses, pun intended, to use the treadmill over at the Rec room, but it’s almost as bad a signup situation as it is for the computer. Being able to walk my laps around the park in the sunshine is the way to go for me. Brain cells are getting oxygen that haven’t been activated since “back in the day”.

Speaking of “back in the day”, we all have memories of our teens and early twenties that are enhanced by the passage of time. Maybe enhanced isn’t the right word, maybe numbed is more apropos, but you catch my drift. Our successes and strengths are exaggerated, and our failures and weaknesses are diminished. We fashion a memory that is something we are comfortable with. I feel certain that is true of all of us. We all recall “the good old days”, right?

Events of this week at Martha’s Vineyard got me to thinking about “the good old days”. My “good old days” included the shootings at Kent State and the riots in Harlem, Watts and others. My “good old days” were some of the most turbulent times in American history, and watching the events at the play ground of the rich and famous put me in a most reflective mood.

First and foremost, racism is not dead in America. We see it every day and are reminded of it every time we hear of another black person being shot by police, or a brown person denied asylum. Watching how the well-heeled citizens handled themselves this week at Martha’s Vineyard was eye opening. Part Dr. King, part Ghandhi, and altogether good Christians, the populace were able to handle a crisis not of their making without a shot being fired. They handled an “invasion” as they were commanded to do in Exodus 22:21. Truncheons and bullets were not required, just human kindness.

In case you missed the story, Ron DeSatan, current governor of the moronic state of Florida decided to show his backside by sending two busloads of immigrants to mansions on the Massachusetts coast. Inquiring minds ask, “Has Cuba started the Mariel boat lift again? No. There is no crisis on Florida’s borders. There are no teeming concentration camps that are draining Florida’s resources.

DeSatan had to import his immigrants from Texas. Texas is where I guess you can just call the governor and say, “I’d really like to prove to the Republican base that I’m the meanest lowest low down sorriest SOB on the planet, could you package up a few women and children for me? Don’t forget some babes in arms, and I’ll send a plane from Florida to pick them up.” Governor Abbott of Texas knew that he himself was a lock for the meanest lowest low down sorriest SOB on the planet, and said sure, “Why not?”

Fortunately, they landed in a place where Christian charity is still alive. Although unprepared, the citizens of Martha’s Vineyard rose to the occasion and made sure that everyone was fed, clothed and looked out for. While I give great props to the citizens for acting in a manner consistent with the Bible’s teachings and not the dogma as espoused by this latest round of right wing Christian caliphates, I do worry about the effect that seeing their stratagem not working will influence the haters. What new trick will they have to devise to “own the libs”, to prove that as low as Donald Trump is, they can go lower?

As an old dog who has now been taught many new tricks by this generation, let me say that had we known all we had to do to “own the Repugs” was just let blue state governors handle the problems, we could have headed off all of this misery. It is more than ironic that the border states with Democrat governors seem to be handling the immigrant problem without lying to everyone and using people as publicity stunts. We should just cut off Federal aid to Texas, Arizona and of course Florida and increase it to California, New Mexico and any other state that wants to participate.

Withholding funds will not only reduce the graft but will relieve the “I’m even more evil than Donald Trump” folks from a talking point. Money makes the pony run as they say, maybe withholding the money will keep some of these ponies from running.

In memory of a different time I give you Pink Floyd. It was true then, it’s true today.