Sunrise With Schubert: February 8, 2018

This idea that a person must stand and applaud a man, when they choose to exercise their First Amendment right not to, tickles me. Yeah, I know it’s not funny, but one can’t help laughing at times. It keeps the anxiety away, even if only for a while. They criticized Abraham Lincoln for using humor to soften the awful experience of visiting the Antietam battlefield site you know.

If Americans can’t find humor in the fact that a five-time draft dodger is suggesting a huge, North Korea-like military parade in his honor, Mark Twain must be spinning in his grave.

Yes, it is serious. Where, oh where on Earth, would our country be if a sitting president could demand and require our enthusiasm “on call” and punish us as traitors for disobedience?

It reminds me of a story they tell of the immortal TV personality Milton Berle. His show was taped and laugh-lines added to spice-up the final edition. Once, he liked a certain joke and insisted that the laugh-track be amplified and extended far beyond the wishes of his sound man.

When they viewed the final tape, and witnessed the out-of-balance laughter at the spot in question, Berle was reported to have turned to the sound man and said, “See, I told you that joke was funny.” If you will close your eyes for a moment and picture Donald Trump designing his own laugh track with his sycophants gathered round him , you'll chuckle. I promise. You can always cry afterwards.

I was out yesterday working for one of our state’s fine cities. A former mayor had requested a meeting with me on a contentious topic and I found myself a little apprehensive. Turns out, it was a most congenial and productive meeting. We were in a closed room just off the City Hall lobby. After the business was settled, war stories crept in and soon we were both guffawing loudly enough to be heard in the next block. We had both seen a great deal of life in municipal government. It is passing strange and funny at times.

Yesterday was like the scene in Local Hero when the Burt Lancaster character goes into the Beachcomber’s shack and shuts the entryway panel. Those outside can only listen to them having a merry time and wonder what is going on inside.

You should have seen the faces of the city staff when we walked out.

Yes, I know that Donald Trump is not a humorous phenomenon to a person who loves this country and has studied history, civics, economics, or the New Testament.

But, if humor helped get Abe Lincoln through the horrific period we call our Civil War, maybe it can help the modern generation survive its own particular reign of terror

Wow man. Now that's funny.