Thursday, October 16, 2014

Fan Service

For a brief summary
of the state of political discourse
in the United States

go to last night in Florida
when Republican Governor Rick Scott

refused to take the stage 

to debate attorney
and former Governor Charlie Crist 

(first Republican
then Independent
then Dear Leader Obama Workers' Party)

for seven minutes
because Crist

had a small electric fan
under his podium.

Crist doesn't like
to be seen in public sweating

whether it's on
a trade mission to Europe

or even in his own yard
playing football.

Scott pointed to debate rules
that specified no electronics
were to be used

including fans
and rules are rules

but there is such a thing
as following "the letter of the law
but not the spirit"

perhaps less trivially so
when during the debate

Crist suggested amending
the Stand Your Ground law

by stating
"to end up killing
another human being

after they started the incident

there is something fundamentally
wrong with that law"

to which Scott responded
that Trayvon Martin's death
was "tragic"

but that the law
should remain as it is.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.