Reconciliation: 15

We Arkansans who remember the assault of Kenneth Starr and his army upon our state are amused at the current party leader who’s whining about being “mistreated.” The tragic trail of families disrupted, reputations defamed, and lives destroyed by this man and his legions, will remain in collective memories for years to come. They include those of a dear lady who witnessed her personal library subpoenaed because some books “contained coded messages,” according to a Starr operative. These consisted of dates with suspicious lettering beside them, such as “tg, pc, mp, ml, and fc.” The worst James Bond villain couldn’t have posed a greater threat to our national security. The only thing missing was crime-scene tape.

Not a soul offered an apology after discovering that the cryptic offenses referred to the daily menu at our state capitol’s cafeteria.

I’ve only eaten breakfast there and then only a couple of times, but I’ve heard the meatloaf was delicious back in the day.

So, I ask all my friends, those on both sides of the political spectrum, to claim the right to elect politicians who understand that there will always be “heat in the political kitchen.” It’s best to withstand it or get out.

When we hear a sitting president say, “No politician in history — and I say this

with great surety — has been treated worse or more unfairly,” simple astonishment isn’t enough. Starr and his clan spent $70,000,000 attempting to destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton. Trey Gowdy spent another $20,000,000 on Hillary alone, we are told. Only Roger Ailes knew how much he spent. And the Koch brothers? They are still at it. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, to mention only two, had daily editorial fodder for more than a decade. Fair? Who’s to say? It just happens, that’s all.

Mistreatment? Were theirs the worst? Ask Abe Lincoln who, on his best day, was only compared to a gorilla.

When I was but a youth, Harry Truman suffered greatly for, among other things, his sin of integrating the military. I well remember attending a rodeo on my home town at which the clown presented the following ditty, repeated over the speakers by the announcer:

Mary had a little Lamb,
Its face was almost human,
and every time you raised its tail.
You'd look at Harry Truman.

It’s too late to ask President Eisenhower how many adoring editorials he received from the Southern news media, with the notable exception of the late Arkansas Gazette.

It might help us heal as a nation to moderate our language. It is no more proper to paint Donald Trump as Adolph Hitler than it was Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barrack Obama, or Hillary.

I’ll even start by toning down my resentment of the Starr episode. I’ll just refer to it as that "that late unpleasantness." Original enough, eh?

Let us also strive to deal in facts and not internet-inspired “truths.” Facts such as: the sun came up this morning. And, though predictions are difficult, especially when they involve the future (a phrase I coined myself although some folks wrongly attribute it to Yogi Berra), the sun will probably come up tomorrow morning, barring one of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “Black Swans.” (Recommended reading).

It is up to us to determine what kind of world that sun will shine upon.

Old Harry came out all right.
Will we?