A Story

Martin and his friends began to build a house. Years ago, others had poured the foundation, but the town in which they lived refused to allow completion of the home. Martin and his friends decided to build it anyway. Officials from the town arrested Martin more than once and threatened him and his friends. But they kept building, brick by brick, board by board, nail by nail. And the house began to take shape.

The town's opposition to the house became hysterical. People from the town carried out many of their threats, often beating and sometimes murdering builders. But Martin and his friends kept building. If you can have a house, Martin explained, so can we. In fact, the safety of your house depends on us being able to build ours. And you can hit us as hard as you want. We won't stop building, even to hit back. Especially to hit back, for that is what you want us to do. And Martin drove another nail into another board.

That night, people from the town murdered one of Martin's friends.

John from the county stopped by. He had heard about the house but hadn't thought too much about it until Martin's friend was killed. He looked at the house and turned to the town. If you can have a house, they can have a house, John said. It's only fair. The town screamed at John. You're from another part of the county. We do things our own way in this town. Martin's friends were happy to live without a roof over their heads until he came along. John looked back at them. Fair is fair, he said.

Martin and his friends kept building.

A few weeks later, Lyndon from the county stopped by the house. John was gone, he explained, but Lyndon agreed with John that fair was fair. Keep building the house, Lyndon told Martin. I'll take care of the county. And Lyndon was as good as his word: Despite the opposition of the town and a county official name Strom who said he would stop the county from doing anything at all if it helped Martin, building permits flowed and zoning restrictions eased.

Martin and his friends kept building.

As the house neared completion, Lyndon found that he needed help from Everett to get one last permit. Everett grumbled about helping. Were it up to him, there would be no house. But it was almost built and people were watching. They thought that fair was fair, too.

Everett agreed to issue the permit, but only if the house wasn't built quite as high as Martin and Lyndon wanted. To get the permit, Lyndon agreed to Everett's terms. Martin wasn't happy about this, but decided that he could add on to the house another day.

Martin and his friends finished that house, and Martin began work on another one in another town.

Years and years later, the house still stood, even if it needed new paint and a new roof. The descendants of Strom and Everett gazed upon it proudly. They didn't see the rotting timbers or the dilapidated porch or the holes in the roof. This house, they said, is as good as ever. It's as sturdy as the day that Strom and Everett built it. It is a shame, they said, that Strom and Everett do not get credit for building this house.

Martin and his friends should be more grateful to Strom and Everett, said Everett's descendants. What, after all, would they have done had Strom and Everett not given them a place to live?

You're right, said Strom's descendants. The history books give all the credit to Martin and Lyndon when it was really Strom and Everett who built the house. We have an idea.

What's your idea?, asked Everett's children.

Let's change history, said Strom's children. So that people will know who really built the house.

And they did...

Bob Herbert reminds us (and Dean Broder) of the real John Boner...

The great E. J. Dionne writes that Democratic candidates are using the new health care bill as a centerpiece of their campaigns...

Paul Krugman on Fox News, the Republican party, and Citizen Kane...

Weekly Address: Sacrifice

On this Memorial Day weekend, President Obama calls on the American people to join him in paying tribute to America’s veterans, servicemen and women – particularly those who have made the ultimate sacrifice - and their families...

Health insurance companies: Can't live with 'em, can't die with 'em, and you certainly can't get sick with 'em. Paul Krugman writes:

That didn’t take long. Less than two weeks have passed since much of the medical-industrial complex made a big show of working with President Obama on health care reform — and the double-crossing is already well under way. Indeed, it’s now clear that even as they met with the president, pretending to be cooperative, insurers were gearing up to play the same destructive role they did the last time health reform was on the agenda.

More here...

The June 1 issue of The Nation has a series of excellent articles on the auto industry, including steps that can be taken toward its recovery...

Ten Things You Can Do To Fight World Hunger...

Sylvia From Over The Hill writes about denial and the real costs of war:

We are brutally and cold-bloodedly sacrificing the psychological well-being of these men and women, which should be a scandal. If these wars are so important to our national security, we should all be engaging in some form of serious sacrifice and many more of us should be serving.

More here...

Bob Herbert adds his voice:

I couldn’t have been less surprised to read last week that an American G.I. had been charged with gunning down five of his fellow service members in Iraq. The fact that this occurred at a mental health counseling center in the war zone just served to add an extra layer of poignancy and a chilling ironic element to the fundamental tragedy.

More here...

Read more about the tragedy to which Herbert refers here...

Don't forget about the Bonnie and Clyde Festival!...

The Sporting News asked "a panel of 100 Hall of Famers, major award winners and other baseball personalities" to choose the best fifty players in the game today. The results are here. Citizen K. doesn'y buy Derek Jeter at #8: He can still hit, but his range at short is severely diminished...

Rushbo Stupidism Of The Week: Mileage Standards Are Liberal Plot To Do Something Or Other. Tuesday was huge for Rushbo, so huge that I couldn't pick a clear winner. So, as a Memorial Day weekend special, Citizen K. presents two stupidisms from Tuesday's program:

Now, admittedly, I -- mostly, I run around with people who are simpatico with me. I run around with people who think and live life the same way I do -- think about issues and all that. I actually had a guy who's a little older than I am over the weekend say to me -- we were talking about all of these economic changes and all of the destruction and all the things that are happening: the banks, the automobile industry, Obama with his fuel standards and so forth, and the general wrecking ball that has been taken to capitalism here by the Obama administration. The guy actually said to me -- I thought he was joking at first, but he wasn't -- he said he's actually happy he's going to die before all of this crap finally settles in...

The DNA of the American human being is no different than the DNA of any human being anywhere in the world. We were not born with special God-given privileges that other people don't have. We were constituted and formed as a nation in ways that allowed the full spread and depth of human potential to flower and prosper. And it was the flowering and the prospering of that human potential, which led and created the greatest nation for people in the history of humanity. And now, it's being dismantled.

It's being dismantled by a man [President Obama] who has no appreciation for the greatness of the country; in fact, resents it. Blames this country for whatever evils and problems he sees around the world. And that's what 39 miles a gallon's all about. And that's what all these taxes and increased prices cost of living is. It's what it's all about. It's about chopping us down in size.