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Now available for preorder:
The San Francisco Panorama.
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We join with all other Americans in applauding the President's recent decision. In light of the volatile situation around the globe we feel it was the only decision he could make and, all things considered, we're glad he made it. We may not agree with everything he says he'll do, but we'll defend to the death his right to say he'll do it — so long as he doesn't actually do it. In today's world, saying it should be enough. George Washington said it. We can't recall at the moment exactly what Washington said, but it must have been good because he was that kind of man and once he said something it was said forever. Nor did he stop there. What he said he'd do he did, and when he did something it stayed done. Did Abraham Lincoln ever say, "It can't be done"? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But if he did he was talking through his beard and no one heard him. And more power to him, we say! Indeed, a bullet ended his life, as bullets have ended the lives of so many other brave Americans in war and in peace. Some of them also had beards like Lincoln. Some did not. In a few cases, we suppose, the beard may even have been pasted on. A hard, bitter truth, if in fact it is the truth, or at least truth-like, but one this nation would be better off facing squarely here and now. Or maybe there and later. Because in the final analysis, isn't that the very picture of a true American: A man who may or may not be wearing a false beard, who may even have forgotten to shave, but who, underneath it all, and taken all in all, is the salt of the earth? We applaud them all. Let it be understood that we are not by any means advocating new legislation along these lines, although there are many plausible arguments for it — too many to enumerate here. Nor are we necessarily opposed to such a law, despite the many convincing reasons for taking such a stance — more reasons than you could shake a stick at. Of course if you did shake a stick at them, at least it wouldn't go "Bang!" and kill three innocent bystanders. Yet we must ask ourselves, since no one else is listening: Can anyone be said, in this day and age and in today's society, to be truly innocent? Or were they possibly enemies of the state? And if so, which state? If it were Alabama, could we blame them? Or should we applaud them, too? The issue of state's rights requires careful and serious consideration. Let us merely state that all states have or should have state's rights, that they have the right to state those rights, and that one of those rights is the right to state that state's rights are, by right, those rights belonging only to states. We don't know how to put our position any more simply than that. It's only our opinion, but we're prepared to stand firmly behind it, where nobody can find us.
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