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.
