A Rebellious Mouse, A Cat, And Tolerance

In a den craftily hidden under a bramble lived a family of field mice. They lived quaintly and quietly for many years until one of the younglings newly come to maturity decided to rebel from the precepts of his father mouse and befriended a barnyard cat. One day the young mouse took his friend with him to his place of birth, thinking in this way to please his companion and to overthrow the vein teachings of his father. When the cat and mouse entered the hidden den, the other field mice shrunk in fear, but the young mouse upon seeing the fear of his parents and siblings said "Fear my friend not, for he is a just cat! It is my father's animus and intolerance that should be feared!" The cat replying said "Tis true that I am just, and because it is my nature to devour mice, I do no wrong." And with that the cat ate every mouse present.

Thus we see that danger lies in extending tolerance to the insidious.

Immortal Glory: The 25 Building Blocks That Will Exalt A Nation

In relation to the other ancient powers, Greece was less than a third world country. Where the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Persians lived in splendor and plenty, the Greek suffered amidst wretchedness and famine. Where the civilized ate cake and drank wine, the Greek was lucky to scrounge stunted grain and brackish water. Where other lands had Pyramids and Hanging Gardens, Greece had not even a hovel. If Greece were placed on a scale against any of these other powers, Greece would be catapulted up into the air. How did Greece against all odds rise to empire despite the whole wealthy world against them? Is it possible that other nations, states, and persons could  replicate the process? How? Perhaps we could venture to answer this question by using our understanding of Grecian history as a guide.

All the ancient sources agree that primeval greece was barbarous unto contempt; in fact Greece could have defined the meaning of barbarism itself. The 1828 Webster's Dictionary, however, defines "Barbarism" as "3. Rudeness of manners; savagism; incivility; ferociousness; a savage state of society."  (http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/Bbarbarism) 

What did a barbarous Greece look like? Not pretty. There were no vineyards, houses, or fields; thus, there were few people, doomed to live in misery. There were however, lots of clubs and spears for these were the implements the people used to rob and murder each other. When anyone got anything of value, bandits were not far behind. When owning a week's worth of food will get you killed, it's better to just eat for today and pray for tomorrow. Attica (the future home of Athens) was especially poor and undesirable. While other lands abounded in natural resources, Attica was sparse and barren. Because none cared to rob and slaughter such poor men in a desolate land, Attica's population boomed. Eventually Attica could no longer support her population, and some were sent to populate Ionia. Then it was that civilization started and once brother stopped killing brother, families grew rich and happy together. Men were then able to keep the fruits of their labour without fear from their neighbor's greedy sword and became an industrious people: they built houses, formed pottery, plowed fallow lands, fished, and traded. At first their wealth remained local, but soon Phoenician traders became attracted to the growing markets in greece and it was from these traders that Greece learned her letters among many other arts. Once the Greek was able to read and write, they were able to compile their oral traditions into papyrus scrolls in order to preserve their thoughts, ideas, conquests, failures, arts, and religion. Because of this, the works of Homer were preserved and we know something of the earliest exploits of the Greeks: The Trojan War.

Prior to the Trojan war, the Greeks were not considered one people, but lived in very small communities. But with the passing of time, the political atmosphere was ripe for a unified effort, which took shape in the abduction of a Grecian woman by the name of Helen. The Greeks then banded together for the first recorded time and destroyed Troy. Years latter, Persia claimed a right to invade Greece, for they considered any attack on Asia and Troy to be an offense to them. Herodotus, the ancient historian, then gives account of the Persian War.

Prior to the Persian war, the Greeks had returned to their homeland and once more separated into their separate tribes and cities; but the Persian war was again to unite Greece to a public cause. Not all the Greeks joined the cause of Greece however, for the Persians were at that time the supper power of the world, having conquered Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, and a good part of western India. Greece was among the very few places in the civilized world left unconquered, causing many Grecian states to submit willingly to Persian rule. But some states were not to be conquered, for their Patriotism was fierce. Can you  guess which to cities resisted Persian invasion? Athens and Sparta. Athens supplied a navel defense against the Persians and Sparta Prepared a land force against the same. The battle of Marathon was Athen's war against the Persians and the battle of Thermopylae was the Spartan's. Both won great renown and their people, forged in adversity became powerful and Robust. Thus Sparta and Athens became the primary states in Greece and all lesser states became subject to them.

with the passing of the Persian invasions, Greece entered a new stage of turmoil, for Athens and Sparta were both entering imperial governments, and Greece they supposed, was not big enough for the two of them and the Peloponnesian War was ignited. Sparta won the conflict, but didn't stay on top for long. Wikipedia recounts the aftermath of this Grecian strife as: "Both Athens and Sparta were later overshadowed by Thebes and eventually Macedon, with the latter uniting the Greek world in the League of Corinth (also known as the Hellenic League or Greek League) under the guidance of Phillip II, who was elected leader of the first unified Greek state in history." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece#History)

Thus Greece became a unified body and grew in power and prestige. Phillip II, unified the Greeks, but his son Alexander The Great would lead Greece to become the new supper power. He launched an invasion of the Persian Empire backed by the combined might of all the Greeks, spreading a Greek empire to the ends of the earth. Greeks filled the known world with their culture. As a result, the Western World found her identity. Empires won quickly and by conquest, do not last long. When Alexander died, his empire followed him to his grave. All the same though, Greece became a force to be reckoned with and changed the corse of history permanently.

Greece went from the epitome of poor to the masters of the universe, but how? Through philanthropy?Did any nation raise Greece like a mother raises a child? No, at best Greece had a few trading partners in the Phoenicians, but the Phoenicians didn't go to Greece because they were generous, but because Greece had something to offer them. Moreover, Greece was invaded multiple times! yet she somehow came out on top! How does a bunch of waring tribes become a super power? Here is a list of building blocks from the Greek's example on how to become a super power:

1. Individuals stopped plundering each other. 
2. Man did not fear relentless slaughter
3. Population boomed
4. Man did not fear being plundered
5. industry boomed 
6. Man became rich
7. Trade boomed
8. Technology boomed 
9. Education became available
10. Some men became more powerful than others
11. Power centralized
12. The waring and plundering cities stopped robing each other
13. Cities united for a common cause
14. The anatomy of power was refined 
15. Population, industry, trade, wealth, technology, and education were revolutionized
16. Prosperity invited inner tumult and external invasion (Persian Invasions)
17. The people are refined and higher morals established 
18. Population, industry, trade, wealth, technology, and education are revolutionized
19. Power struggles
20. The anatomy of power is further refined 
21. Justice prevails over injustice
22. The cities and states become unified under one government
23. Population, industry, trade, wealth, technology, and education are revolutionized
24. Influence exponentially expands 
25. A super power is formed

Each instruction is built on top of the first. A population is not built from plunder and murder! A population, on the contrary, is built upon safety and a surplus of food (wealth). If once the blocks of civilization start to tower high, and a block on the bottom is removed, then the tower will fall. If a super power becomes tyrannical, blocks are removed and the power reduced. This was how Greece went from chump to champ.

While Greece did win a place in history, she did stumble a few times. If a nation is built off of not killing each other,  destroying Troy is not a constructive (nor humane) path to victory. In a similar manner, conquering the world and subjecting other peoples dose not open the door to salvation. Furthermore, overly centralized governments typically spell ruin for any nation who supports them. As is clear, Greece had shortcomings, but she still able to construct, and out of those 25 building blocks was able to erect a monument that will stand as long as man can read.

I often imagine that I can use the past to become a powerful seer, and am able to divine the future based on my knowledge. In doing this I wonder what the fates of nations will be. Perhaps the current superpowers will topple because they removed a vital block. Perhaps there are nations currently small and weak, whom will someday be grand super powers because of their diligence in placing block upon block. I don't believe I imagine in vein, for the signs are clear: If America dares remove her foundation, she will fall. If the barbaric nations build block upon block, they will inherit the world.

Sources:
http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.html
http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.html
http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.html
http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.html
http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/Bbarbarism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece#History

Grecian Golden Age and The Libertas Creed 2

It wasn't till greece began to be literate that their civilization truly became great. With the invention of reading, writing, and math Greece was able to enter it's golden age. The earliest know literature out of Greece is of course, the works of Homer, The Iliad and the Odyssey. From thence do we get a glimpse of what attributed to a Grecian golden age. The contributing factors, as we may glean from the pages of these antiquated books were that the Grecian people united, justice became more refined, morals were more firmly established, the people became more righteous. Justice for example, was the cause of the whole Trojan war fiasco in the first place, for, Paris son of Priam, abducted Helen from her homeland, and despite all legal means to get her back, Paris would not comply. The Morality of the Greek also became more abundant at the dawn of the West. While it is obvious that only the very best fighters would survive a ernest and violent war, what is not recognized is that morality also played a huge roll in the immortalized Trojan War. While natural selection picked off the weak and foolish amount the ranks, it also picked off the immoral. Patroclus is killed because of the pride of Achilles, as well as Achilles himself. Ajax is killed also for his pride when he mocked Poseidon. Agamemnon was murdered by his adulterous wife. And many other lesser Achaean heroes are killed by some moral deficiency. Odysseus was one of the few survivors and he is famed for his exceptionally steadfast morality. After the war was over, and the warriors returned to their homes, they all acted in greater righteousness than when they set out. 

From that most ancient time, Western history gets it's origin. As a result of the trojan war, and as a result of Homer, and whatever culture that went into ancient appreciation of Homer, we get later authors, philosophers, warriors, and playwrights as a heritage of that primeval war and that primeval storyteller. From 500 to 300 BC, Greece was basking in it's Golden Age. This Age of plenty and culture was largely the heritage of the Trojan war and Homer; but that was not all. 

The paramount factor to sparking and feeding the Grecian Golden age were the people at large, and great persons. The people at large began to value nobel virtues, moral values, and civilization. This general attitude among the people gave rise to the great men of the times, who of which can be found At Wikipedia linked here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ancient_Greeks

Therefore, what launched Greek's Golden Age was manny fold including: proper government,  justice, morality, Righteous people, An elevated culture, freedom of trade, promotion of arts and sciences by the general people, among so many others that it would be tedious to list them all, but you get the general idea. It cannot be stressed enough how a golden age is brought about and by whom. One man couldn't of done it alone; neither one class of people or race, creed, philosophy, or religion. For Greece to be come the cradle of Western civilization, it took all the people from many different backgrounds to define it as "Golden." 

The Libertas Creed is dedicated to anything that brings about and maintains such an age. While many disparage America and the world for declining and falling, The Libertas Creed refuses to take this view, preferring to, by it's efforts maintain whatever Golden Age heritage is left, and perhaps revive it; or, if this fails, to provide some basis for a golden age to come. There is a time when everyman must decide where he stands and what price he must pay. Will he flop into the dirt, degenerate and bestial; Or  will he stand like a man akin to God?




If you found this post illuminating, you may also like these other Libertas Creed posts:

Freedom to Increase

Hector: A Pillar of Strength

Humanism is Shortsighted I

Grecian Golden Age and The Libertas Creed 1

When upon cracking the ancient spines of the surviving Greek works, there is a general golden thread throughout all of them that hints at what it takes to launch a golden age for a civilization. In The History Of The Peloponnesian War, there is related a time before Greece ever be came great, or powerful, or influential; but where Greece was perhaps among the lowest of barbaric countries:

"For instance, it is evident that the country now called Hellas had in ancient times no settled population; on the contrary, migrations were of frequent occurrence, the several tribes readily abandoning their homes under the pressure of superior numbers. Without commerce, without freedom of communication either by land or sea, cultivating no more of their territory than the exigencies of life required, destitute of capital, never planting their land (for they could not tell when an invader might not come and take it all away, and when he did come they had no walls to stop him), thinking that the necessities of daily sustenance could be supplied at one place as well as another, they cared little for shifting their habitation, and consequently neither built large cities nor attained to any other form of greatness. The richest soils were always most subject to this change of masters; such as the district now called Thessaly, Boeotia, most of the Peloponnese, Arcadia excepted, and the most fertile parts of the rest of Hellas. The goodness of the land favoured the aggrandizement of particular individuals, and thus created faction which proved a fertile source of ruin. It also invited invasion. Accordingly Attica, from the poverty of its soil enjoying from a very remote period freedom from faction, never changed its inhabitants. And here is no inconsiderable exemplification of my assertion that the migrations were the cause of there being no correspondent growth in other parts. The most powerful victims of war or faction from the rest of Hellas took refuge with the Athenians as a safe retreat; and at an early period, becoming naturalized, swelled the already large population of the city to such a height that Attica became at last too small to hold them, and they had to send out colonies to Ionia." 

Hence all Western Civilization arose out of a land so poor, that it was unattractive to thieves and tyrants, but once people were left to enjoy their liberty and the fruits of there own labor, their population boomed so immensely that their influence began to colonize more fruitful lands nearby. The history continues to share another factor that attributed to the barbarism of the times: 

"There is also another circumstance that contributes not a little to my conviction of the weakness of ancient times. Before the Trojan war there is no indication of any common action in Hellas, nor indeed of the universal prevalence of the name; on the contrary, before the time of Hellen, son of Deucalion, no such appellation existed, but the country went by the names of the different tribes, in particular of the Pelasgian. It was not till Hellen and his sons grew strong in Phthiotis, and were invited as allies into the other cities, that one by one they gradually acquired from the connection the name of Hellenes; though a long time elapsed before that name could fasten itself upon all. The best proof of this is furnished by Homer. Born long after the Trojan War, he nowhere calls all of them by that name, nor indeed any of them except the followers of Achilles from Phthiotis, who were the original Hellenes: in his poems they are called Danaans, Argives, and Achaeans. He does not even use the term barbarian, probably because the Hellenes had not yet been marked off from the rest of the world by one distinctive appellation. It appears therefore that the several Hellenic communities, comprising not only those who first acquired the name, city by city, as they came to understand each other, but also those who assumed it afterwards as the name of the whole people, were before the Trojan war prevented by their want of strength and the absence of mutual intercourse from displaying any collective action." 

Thus was Greece not one state, but thousands of small tribes, which condition practically describes barbarism. It wasn't till these tribes were united into the larger powers called Athens or Sparta, that civilization started it's long assent to the top. It is important however to note that while a central authority is useful, a corrupt and overly powerful central authority is the best equipped to takedown the civilization it was originally established to promote. (While centralizing authority was a pedestal for civilization to build upon in the beginning, centralizing authority was also responsible for Greece's post golden age by initiating stupid wars, welfare, and fiat money.)

Read More: 

Thomas Jefferson's Own Books: A Glimpse Into Genius

The best books come used and may be tattered and stained, but often they also come annotated. Depending on the previous owner of the book, there might be additional gems of wisdom that you would miss if you bought new. One of the best examples of this are used textbooks. If you happen to ever be in a class where the teacher has not changed the curriculum in years, and you happen to own a well annotated textbook, studying becomes easier by spades: you can skim the book, only reading the highlighted sections, you can be prepared for essay prompts because the motifs have been discovered and analyzed by the previous owner, vocabulary words are not only circled but defined, etc.

What if on the other hand, you possessed a used book that wasn't some text book? What if you had a used, annotated book that had some higher significance? What if you owned the beloved, annotated book of some late genius, and you had a glimpse at their soul, and you too could develop your faculties to the same level of brilliance?

Take Thomas Jefferson. What if you could read what he was reading, with his notes and thoughts? Such a thing is possible. The Library of Congress houses a room, recreated to resemble Thomas Jefferson's library, full of his books. It was Thomas Jefferson's private books that did comprise much of the library at one point in it's early days:

"The book collections of the Library of Congress were reestablished, after their destruction in 1814, by the purchase of the private library of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). At the time of the purchase, Jefferson's collection contained 6,487 volumes in the fields of politics, history, science, law literature, fine arts, and philosophy and was recognized as one of the finest private libraries in the United States. While several members of Congress object that the collection "was too philosophical, had too many books in foreign languages, was too costly, and was too large for the wants of Congress," as Librarian of Congress Ainsworth Rand Spofford wrote many years later, the purchase was authorized on January 26, 1815, for the sum of $23,950. The Jefferson Library forms the nucleus around which the present collections of the Library of Congress have been assembled. For nearly a century the subject arrangement that Jefferson developed from Sir Francis Bacon's division of knowledge was used to organize the Library of Congress book collection. Jefferson's statement, "There is, in fact, no subject to which a member of Congress may not have occasion to refer," is still the guiding principle for Library acquititions.

While many of the Jefferson books were lost in the Library fire of 1851, the remaining volumes have been assembled as a unit in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Many books bear Jefferson's ownership markings as well as the original Library of Congress bookplates and classification. The contents of the entire 1815 purchase were reconstructed by E. Millicent Sowerby and described in a five volume set entitled which is now made available digitally." http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/130.html

To think that his books, along with a piece of his soul in annotation form is available to read is astounding, but rather inaccessible if you live a thousand miles away. Thankfully, such literature is available to the general public in an accessible form. Here is a link to an internet sight for the Rare Books and Special Collections Reading Room of the Library of Congress, which can be found a collection of PDF files for
a selection of Thomas Jefferson's books at:httwww.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/130.html

The Cities Levity and Sobriety

Now I have been a stalwart citizen of both cites throughout my life, and have been in perpetual state of immigration between, the opposite cities called Levity and Sobriety. Imagine, if you would, that Levity and Sobriety are cities built at the opposite ends of a long valley. Levity, the magnificent, is a city full of ruckus and tumult. The citizens there live at high stakes while wearing flashy clothes, driving vintage, and always at hand to a party. Whereas Sobriety, the nobel, is a city reserved and quiet. It's citizenry also live at high stakes, but they know they do, and care accordingly while they dress with dignity, driving moderately.

Levity, the city of the eternal party, once a long time ago accused it's sister city of actually boring it''s citizens to death. And Sobriety, the city of eternal prudence, countered by launching an advertising campaign to show how Levitarians were drowning in their own shallowness. Apparently, while the mass of the peoples in both cities were not effected by either of these claims, there were a scattering of individuals convinced.

 If you happened to be traveling the road that connected the two, you'd see emigrants making the pilgrimage from once city to the other, often passing each other going opposite directions. Those going from Levity to Sobriety looked bedraggled, tired, and hung-over, rarely bringing anything with them but the clothes on their back. Those travelers leaving Sobriety to move to Levity looked stuffy, boring, and looking excited to finally have a cut of the action, While those going to sobriety looked broke, those coming from there had apparently amassed small fortunes, and were intent to use their wealth to fuel the party.

In recent years, I have come to realize that the best place to live in the entire valley, is not in Sobriety nor Levity, but on a bluff overlooking the whole valley, and from my vantage point I can see the helium balloons rise above the skyline of Levity, and I can hear the chamber music issuing from Sobriety. In my locale, I get the best of both worlds: I get the joys of Levity and the sane wisdom of Sobriety. Plus, not a lot of people live out here, so I picked up the land cheep!

Libertas: The Ride

Imagine being buckled down to a seat in a cart as you travel down some rails, through a dark tunnel.
You see before you the cosmic canopy, full of stars, nebulas, galaxies, planets, moons, comets, and everything. You continue down the tunnel past this glorious scene to find a new one: a depiction of a planet forming and becoming habitable. Further through the tunnel, you see the story of life; you see creatures born, and creatures die, leaving only a few relics, dusty bones, and their progeny. As you race down the tunnel, you see this happen over and over, but as you witness this strange circus, you notice a general trend. As you watch, the creatures do not stay the same. they
become slightly better from generation to generation. True, you do see some steps backwards as you watch, in one display, an asteroid hit the earth and many advanced forms of life advanced no further, but all the same as you zoom along in your cart with your hand upon the restraint in front of you, life is becoming better, faster, stronger… Wiser.

You suddenly zip around a tight corner, your body being thrown against the side of the cart, and as you calm down, you see new exhibits open up before you. You see the thing called man come out of the Garden of Eden and how he had to battle thistles and thorns in his efforts to eek out his existence. With fingernails instead of claws, skin instead of fur, hands instead of talons, and brains instead of brawn you witnessed his rise to empire. You saw man build along the Nile, settle the Indus Valley, farm the Fettle Crescent, and generally develop any land suitable.

Your journey in the cart continues, and you see various pictures of cities, peoples, kings, disputes, battles, inventions, technology, ideas; and with each passing picture, things get better. Sticks and mud, becomes hide tents. Tents become wooden loges. Loges morph into adobe, stone, and brick houses. Houses become marbled estates. Estates become ornate palaces.

As you watch, you see the vices of man punish him and his evil ways, but you also see the virtues of man reward him in like manner. And thus, as your cart speeds up a little faster, you see wicked civilizations pass away, and righteous ones take root. You drive by Greece in it's wisdom and as you whip by you see it's decay. You see Rome in it's glory, and as you whip by you see it's decline. You see Byzantium in it's splendor, and as you whip by you see it sacked. You see the Arabs influence stretch from Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar into Africa, the Near East, and into the Orient, pushing right up to the boarders of Russia, then crumble back down to separate countries. And your cart races onward.

 As a chain along the track grabs the cart beneath you, and you start to travel up a hill, you witness the renaissance spread throughout Europe and enlighten the minds of Europeans to a time before decay; to when Rome was a republic and when Greece was a land of scholars. As you approach the center of the lengthy slope on your journey upwards, you see Spain, France, Germany, and England overtaken with the infectious spirit of just government, free trade, and golden age thinking. You then see Europeans come across to the New World, and settle there. The Immigrants, forced to give up every residue of vice that survived the renaissance, quickly grew the best governance, the ripest trade, and the wisest men and women of the time.

At this point, you approach the apex of your long journey, witnessing as you pass the decline of the new world, as vice, like a weed, begins to grow. Quickly the government is corrupted and becomes putrid and tyrannical. As the people grow slothful and arrogant, trade shrivels and the markets and ports dry up. And, the people grow stupid and canine.

Suddenly, almost at the top of the hill, you bump the cart in front of you, you wandered for a second at the abrupt halt, but than you see that the tracks diverge into two separate routs. On the one hand, you see a set of rails head off to the right, and the other forward. The cart takes the tracks to the right. You watch as the cart goes racing down an incline, and than into a downward bent helix. In the end, the cart, once ahead of you, zooms, slows down, and is led along it's rails until it's path, once again merges with the main drag, the cart now far below, and struggling back up the hill. You wonder if such a fate will be yours.

Once your cart, is like wise atop the hill, you here a voice in a narrative tone issue from speakers affixed to the sides of your head rest: "You have just ridden through history. To choose your destined path, choose between the two buttons located on your dashboard." Two buttons, previously obscured by the darkness that surrounded you, lit up. On the first was inscribed the slogans "Justice, Liberty, Wealth, Wisdom" and on the second were inscribed the slogans "Fairness, License, Extravagance, Amusement ." You sit. You stare. You realize, that you have watched this decision being made sense you boarded this ride! You quickly press the first button, and the tracks move as to allow passage for your cart to travel ahead. You laugh to yourself as you think about the cart that gone ahead. They probably were here for the thrill and not the learning experience anyway.

Then as you near the steep hill that would soon send your cart cruising, you get a chance to see the future. You look out over everything to come, You see the hill ahead, the loopy loops, the spirals, and the dips. You see beyond this to the exhibits, with their bright colors and animatronics, what they present. Although you have an incomplete and hazy view, you are able to pick out a few details. You see many more scenes of man struggling between vice and virtue, always having to decide. you see progression, from all that came before; how better governments will be made, how wealth will be generated, and what new ideas will take shape. In an exhibit far, far below you see mankind join the cosmic dance, and spread through the stars. Beyond even this you see man develop biologically from, himself into higher and higher forms of existence. And at the end, you can see over the entire expanse of creation, God. With that, your cart goes over the edge, and you are taken into destiny.

A Letter to Thwart Masters and Dogs

O thou politician, cease your infinite dribble over the comfort of the miserable, and the security of the inept, and the safety of the downtrodden, and the protection of the weak, and the fortune of the unlucky, and the interests of the poor. You advocate that the impoverished be exalted, yet you grind their faces all the same; and this in your mad graspings for power. You grind the faces of us all! We have seen the fruits of your labor, and they are black with mold and corruption. You pour your slogans into our ears, that the sick and the elderly will be provided for, yet in the United Kingdom they are euthanized or cast into the metaphorical gutter called the "waiting room." Where is the promised care? And in Greece, you promised us lives free of hard toil and care, and yet we can't even access an ATM anymore. How will raising minimum wage assist the poor when doing so throws them out of work? O thou snake in suit and tie, we care not for your imaginary promises and declare them venomous. Those of us who remember the lax canine and the taut wolf in the fable narrated by the Roman fabulist Phaedrus so long ago, know what role thou politician plays in the story. Read and find out:

Fable VII.
THE DOG AND THE WOLF.

"I will shew in a few words how sweet is Liberty.

A Wolf, quite starved with hunger, chanced to meet a well-fed Dog, and as they stopped to salute each other, “Pray,” said the Wolf, "how is it that you are so sleek? or on what food have you made so much flesh? I, who am far stronger, am perishing with hunger.” The Dog frankly replied: “You may enjoy the same condition, if you can render the like service to your master.” “What is it?” said the other. “To be the guardian of his threshold, and to protect the house from thieves at night.” “I am quite ready for that,” said the Wolf; “at present I have to endure snow and showers, dragging on a wretched existence in the woods. How much more pleasant for me to be living under a roof, and, at my ease, to be stuffed with plenty of victuals.” “Come along, then, with me,” said the Dog. As they were going along, the Wolf observed the neck of the Dog, where it was worn with the chain. “Whence comes this, my friend?” “Oh, it is nothing.III.22” “Do tell me, though.” “Because I appear to be fierce, they fasten me up in the day-time, that I may be quiet when it is light, and watch when night comes; unchained at midnight, I wander wherever I please. Bread is brought me without my asking; from his own table my master gives me bones; the servants throw me bits, and whatever dainties each person leaves; thus, without trouble on my part, is my belly filled.” “Well, if you have a mind to go anywhere, are you at liberty?” “Certainly not,” replied the Dog. “Then, Dog, enjoy what you boast of; I would not be a king, to lose my liberty.”'

O thou Politician, you play "the master." you style yourself as the cosmic supreme, and the tyrant father to all of us children. Our necks are growing raw from the chain as we beg for scraps at your table; we beg for collage grants yet we find no job, we beg for food stamps yet food becomes scarce, we beg for regulations yet our commodities cheapen into costly garbage! And for these petty scraps you expect us to cast our full measures of devotion at your princely feet. You slaughter us in psychotic wars, you corrupt our children in "public" schools, you tax our paychecks before the money even goes through our hands! And you claim to be serving us?

Yet you fear. Because we appear to be fierce, you fasten us up in the day-time, that we might be quite while it is light; which has worked. but when you unchain us when night comes, we will not return. We will follow the sage wolf and become strong and silvery as he is. We will not surrender our poor and our weary to you! We, the pack, will look after them ourselves, and see they are provided for! We will keep our liberties and go where we wish. For those of us to cowardly to be free: “Then, Dog[s], enjoy what you boast of; I would not be a king, to lose my liberty.”