Dr. Suess Appreciation Day

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! Today is his birthday; he was born on this day in 1904, as Theodor Seuss Geisel. He died in 1991, after writing many books for children. Today, however; appears to be a perfect day to share something he wrote for adults. In 1974, Dr. Seuss submitted a paraphrased version of Marvin Mooney Will You Please Go? to the Washington Post, in reference to then president Richard Nixon. Several weeks later, Richard Nixon resigned. Can anyone think of another corrupt White House occupant who should heed this message?

"Richard M. Nixon will you please go now!
The time has come. The time has come. The time is now.
Just go. Go. Go!
I don't care how. You can go by foot. You can go by cow.
Richard M. Nixon will you please go now!
You can go on skates. You can go on skis. You can go in a hat.
But.. Please go. Please!
I don't care. You can go by bike. You can go on a Zike-Bike
If you like. If you like.
You can go in an old blue shoe.
Just go, go, GO! Please do, do, do, DO!
Richard M. Nixon, I don't care how.

Richard M. Nixon,will you please GO NOW!
You can go on stilts. You can go by fish. You can go in a Crunk-Car
If you wish. If you wish You may go by lion's tale.
Or stamp yourself and go by mail.
Richard M. Nixon, don't you know
The time has come to go, go, GO!
Get on your way! Please Richard M.!
You might like going in a Zumble-Zay.
You can go by balloon . . . Or broomstick.
Or you can go by camel
In a bureau drawer. You can go by bumble-boat. . . or jet.
I don't care how you go. Just get!
Richard M. Nixon! I don't care how.

Richard M. Nixon will you please GO NOW!
I said GO
And GO I meant . . .
The time had come
So . . . Richard WENT."

Whistle Blowing The Old Fashioned Way

Whistle blowing. A fun, new concept that really shouldn't represent a necessity. But yet, it does. What a shame that we do not teach history well enough in our public schools to avoid that other necessity of repeating history when we fail to learn an important lesson the first time. Or the second, third, or fourth time, as the case may be.

The subject of the expectation of privacy, and respect for the same, has been in the spotlight many times in American history. We have local and federal laws protecting privacy, and our nation's Constitution addresses it, as well. Verdicts in capital murder cases have been overturned because of governmental abuses of citizens' rights to privacy. A republican president even resigned as a result of the way his administration treated the rights of others to privacy. Anyone remember Watergate? So why was it necessary for Edward Snowden to remind the general public that we still have not learned a damn thing from our own history?

Back in the day, before the internet, we got things done the old fashioned way. A very recently published book titled The Burglary describes the actions of John and Bonnie Raines, and Keith Forsythe whistleblowing without the internet. J. Edgar Hoover, the head honcho of the FBI in 1971, was already notorious for blackmailing and threatening others. Despite American law and the Constitution, he established and sanctioned government practices of blatantly ignoring the rights of American citizens. Digging up dirt and using personal information to which he had no legal right was his most typical tool of blackmail, and it was his policy to encourage all law enforcement agencies to violate the law this way. Granted, he was FBI, not state or local police departments, but we cannot forget what rolls downhill.

Bonnie Raines cased the FBI building in Media, Pennsylvania, and one night, she and her cohorts broke in and stole a bunch of classified documents which outlined directives to snoop illegally, blackmail, threaten, and bypass the rights of anyone and everyone who found themselves at cross purposes with the government, as it concerned J. Edgar Hoover. After finding pertinent bits and pieces of information in their loot, the group anonymously gave it to a journalist for the Washington Post. The attorney general serving at the time asked the Post not to publish this information, and J. Edgar Hoover was furious.......yet, the show went on. Much of the privacy and many of the rights connected to privacy enjoyed by Americans today, along with the ability to question authority from the individual standpoint owes to this anonymous action and risk, taken by these three individuals. J. Edgar Hoover sought to become more powerful than the Truth, but alas! He was unsuccessful. The burglars were never caught, and their identities never came to light until their book was published. What did come to light was the corruption that had engulfed and swallowed all branches of the government at the time.

What isn't known is whether or not J. Edgar Hoover ever stopped to consider the irony of this particular burglary taking place in a town called "Media".