It began as the GODFATHER OF MATH, evolved into the GOODFATHER OF MATH. Now this. Go figure...

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The kind of humor I like is the thing that makes me laugh for five seconds and think for ten minutes = G. CARLIN...Stain glass, engraved glass, frosted glass
–give me plain glass = JOHN FOWLES ... Music is the mathematics of the gods=PYTHAGORAS ... Nothing is more fluid than language = R. L. SWIHART
I cannot live without the oxygen of laughter = DAWN POWELL ... !!! ... But laughter cannot survive without the hydrogen of gravitas = PAUL OLIVERIO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

What The Marketing People Deleted From The First Amendment

______________________________________________________________________________________________

There are very few amongst us
who can quote verbatim
the entire  First Amendment
to the Constitution
of the United States

I am not one of them

But we all know
that it gives us
FREEDOM OF RELIGION
and 
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
et al

Those two pairs of three words
are emblazoned on the skull
of every American citizen
and non-citizen

has determined
that additional Freedoms
(or corollaries to those Freedoms)
were proposed in 1791
when James Madison
wrote
"The Bill of Rights"
 
We have
FREEDOM OF RELIGION
but it was suggested
that it be adjoined with
FREEDOM OF TOLERANCE
so as to avoid friction
between people
of different religions
 
We have 
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
but it was suggested 
that it be adjoined with
FREEDOM OF SILENCE
so as to avoid
too many people
speaking at the same time
 
The Silence
would give us time
to absorb
what has just been said 
 
The United States of America
was a mere teenager
when the Bill of Rights
was written
 
We were only fifteen years old
 
The Marketing Department
Founding Fathers
of the United States
did not want Madison
to include the adjoining Freedoms
because they compromised
FREEDOM OF RELIGION
and 
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
 
However.
imagine the corollary
FREEDOM OF TOLERANCE
!!!
It would mean that you
could go to your neighbor's church
even though it believed in things
dramatically different
from your own church
(and vice versa)
 
After their church service,
they would serve
a continental breakfast
including foods
you could never pronounce
but all you would say was
Yummy Yummy Yummy
Can I please have
a second serving
 
Imagine
the American classroom
if students practiced
FREEDOM OF SILENCE
whenever the teachers
were trying to teach them
 
Then and only then 
would our students
be as smart as
any other students 
 in any other country
 
  What a wonderful thing
those compromising Freedoms
would have been

If only there had been
—in 1791—
some Founding Mothers
in the United States
•••

©  PAULOLIVERIO ©
______________________________________________________________________________________________

7 comments:

  1. I truly like this page but the ending seems rather abrupt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. May I suggest an emendation?

      Delete
    2. If only there had been — in 1791 — some Founding Mothers
      in the United States or an ancestor of Louis Armstrong
      singing WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD THIS COULD BE.

      Delete
    3. My gratitude cannot be measured

      Sometimes I wish you were me


      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3yCcXgbKrE

      Delete
  2. Pardon my mistake: I gave a wrong title to Satchmo's anthemic song.
    The title has only four words, not seven as previously stated.

    WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD is based on visual facts.

    "What A Wonderful World This Could Be" is the Sam Cooke classic
    about a young man in love but has failing grades
    in Algebra and Geography.

    ReplyDelete