Last year Mr. Clark, the Editor of this magazine took away my writing privileges because he said I was too caustic.  I got it.  I am sarcastic – and I understand sarcasm can be toxic.  I was told that I rant and rave too much.  He likes my witticisms.  He thinks I am clever.  He said that I am more clever than I am smart.  I can think of something witty to say faster than I can reason out why I should remain silent.  I get that too.  I argued that this whole magazine is an editorial page – I am not supposed to keep quiet.  He said that was enough and he denied me privileges on this page.  Here I am, back again after a year sabbatical.  I am frustrated.  I cannot think of how to write without being all of the things Mr. Clark accused me of being.  Now what?  What am I to do?

I was granted writing privileges a couple of months ago and I have been unable to write – not because of any technology – but because I do not know how to be what Mr. Clark wants me to be.  I think he wants me to be witty and clever but to avoid any harsh treatment of anyone.  If he wants more supporting data then I can work with that.  I know how to do research.  I know how to use facts to support my claim of natural superiority to the rest of the world.

Life is not easy.  Life is unfair.  Life is not kind and forgiving.  Life can be mean and hateful – and I am talking about life in the greatest country ever imagined by man – the United States of Christendom (USC).  I am an American writer.  Most of my essays are about life in the USC.  The gall of our politicians and Christian leaders who claim righteousness while structuring our economy around an impoverished class of losers shocks me to my very soul.  The brutality of those claiming the authority of Christ Himself should shock the senses of any self-respecting atheist, let alone someone who professes his love of Jesus.  Mr. Clark somehow thinks that these rascals should be be treated to milk and honey – after all, is this not the Promised Land?

Mr. Clark has his own issues.  I think I will give him a good dose of Ohg Rea Tone.  Here is the deal, Mr. Clark, you like me just fine when I am assaulting those with whom you disagree – but when I get too close to home you slip that manicured tail of yours between your legs and you run for the safety of self defined dignity.  The problem is in the definition of dignity.

I know Mr. Clark pretty well.  He is not an easy man to please.  That statement was too kind.  Mr. Clark is a difficult person at best.  I watched him this past couple of years.  I watched him suffer the consequences of his own abrasive personality.  An aside, not everyone knows the abrasive side of that man – in many ways he acts like the disgusting false Christians and is very much a member of the USC.  I asked him abut this and he said, “I know when to compromise.  I know when the battle cannot be won.  I know which hills to die on.”  That is the rallying cry of the lost souls of pseudo spirituality.

The word compromise is a signal of a lost soul.  Can we compromise our values?  Henry Kissinger said we can can compromise technique or method but we cannot compromise our principles.  I like that.  But people get confused.  People are faced with conflicting values.  In the world of the United States of Christian Bullshit compromise means taking the course of least resistance.  The pressure of dramatic and cruel consequences saw Mr. Clark compromising his values – he began to look for a way to find harmony with other adults while maintaining his value of going to war over the child abuse of poverty.  In his eyes he failed.  He could not find the trail to contentment.  Every effort found him leaving the child behind.  Every attempt at reconciliation with other adults found him quietly crying himself to sleep because he knew that the child would suffer.  Any reconciliation would require the abandonment of the child.

Mr. Clark and I parted company when he insisted that I participate in attempts at adult harmony at the expense of children.  I feel sorry for that man.  He continues to cry himself into fitful slumber because he continues to search for something that does not exist.  Mr. Clark searches for ways for adults to live in harmony while seeking social justice.  He will never find that elusive algorithm of the human justice.

The harsh reality, some say cynical, is that most of those people who claim the be patriots of the US of A, and those who claim to be followers of the Christ are just people looking for something that pleases them.  They have no interest in the details of the United States Constitution or of the Bible.  People search those documents to find justification for their own self-interest.

Sorry Mr. Clark – but these folks need a powerful  dose of sarcasm – delivered without any intention of kindness.  Call me hateful or mean spirited, call me sarcastic, call me cynical, call me any names that make you feel better – I will never surrender to any compromise that discounts the children, to any compromise that ends with the injustice of selfish people acting in their own self interest.

Harmony among adults is way down my list of important outcomes.  Dignity will never be found while a child suffers.