Happy Birthday, Mr. Bierce!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Bierce!

Yet another year has passed and the only thing of any real interest here is that, as I'm sure you are aware, it is an election year. And, once again, your description of an election as "nothing more than the advanced auction of stolen goods" is as accurate as the maps which you once drew for General Hazen.

This year those that will be exercising their Constitutionally-assured right to cast their vote and, in doing so, "make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country" will once again have the opportunity to reject the evil of two lessers. However, it appears that recognition of the lesser evil might prove problematic.

This year the body politic must choose from two current members of the Senate, that "body of elderly gentlemen charged with high duties and misdemeanors" although neither of the two contenders will be elderly or, for that matter, distinguished. As an aside, it might interest you to know that not only are women now allowed to vote; some of them have actually been elected to the House of Representatives and, in smaller numbers, to the Senate.

We began this political season with the usual plethora of candidates seeking to capture "the greased pig in the field game of American politics," an office otherwise known as the Presidency. After the first rounds of caucuses and primaries, most candidates from the Democratic Party, those having had only a miniscule chance at election to begin with, grudgingly acknowledged that which had been patently obvious to everyone else and withdrew until there were but two. But, Mr. Bierce, what a circus it has been!

On the Democratic side of the fence the word history, "an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant ...," has been heard more often than in the classroom.