“In congruous assembled, therefore, we affirm the world is insane an’ will elect a nutty leader to cope with it! Thereby giving him an out! No matter what he does he can be proven innocent by reason of insanity.” There now folks, you see what a real education including a Ph. D. can do for you. The truly educated can reach into the great literature of America and come up with the pearls of wisdom bequeathed us such as Walt Kelly giving us this invaluable and prescient political insight by Porkypine forty years ago. But alas, such learning did not come from the universities I have attended where Porkypine would be given short shrift, which has always been a source of consternation for me considering the really nutty people running the universities.

Hey, taking into account the decisions and policies emanating from the White House one might be excused for believing what Porkypine suggested has in fact been accomplished. Not a few credits a lunatic in the White House, but where are We the People to find any of sane minds that would do any better? Pretty scant pickings; which is a most uncomfortable (bland intended) situation in which to find ourselves.

Even as a child I recognized the funny papers as the truly intellectual part of a newspaper, and as I grew older I discovered the real genius of those like Al Capp and later that of Walt Kelly in dealing with the most important issues facing America. Pricking the balloons of pompous asses like politicians is the forte of those with a genius for humor. Nowhere but in our best humorists like Capp and Kelly do we find a picture being worth a thousand words so applicable.

I am a well qualified Bible scholar, and this book that has had the greatest influence in history bringing about the best of the civilized arts and sciences, the book without which there would be no Western Civilization as we know it remains without parallel, and no one that has not read the Bible in its entirety and knows somewhat of the history of the book has any right to the claim of being “educated.”

But while knowing the Bible and being able to quote Scripture and glean the best of the book in order to advance one’s ideas of morality, of civilized behavior has its proper and invaluable place in America one must also know those like Walt Kelly. I have recourse to the Bible and the towering intellect of Emerson among others from which to form my own thoughts, but those like Sam Clemens and Walt Kelly make their contributions as well. The best of our humorists drag the demons, often kicking and screaming, from their darkness into the light of day in order for us to confront and overcome them.

However, the real genius of humor does not indulge anything tawdry or base, is not low or mean. While Harper Lee with her genius was able to capture and expose those things most wrong in America as well as those things most right, the humorist enables us to deal with these issues by helping us to laugh at the very silliness of our prejudices. Unfortunately in too many cases we feel like little Dill who would be a clown when he grew up because he would rather that than spend all his time weeping over the lunacy of adult injustices.

One should not discount the demons plaguing the humorist; Harlequin remains laughing on the outside but crying inwardly and Dill would still have that to confront, and like Sam Clemens who cautioned our public opinions must be carefully barbered and perfumed before being presented his genius for humor derived from his knowledge and experience of the ugliest speech, prejudices and actions of which we humans are capable, and then casting these things in a humorous way made palatable for public consumption.

I am fortunate to have a close friend who daily sends me cute animal pictures. How much rather see TV news including pictures of those momma ducks with their ducklings, pictures of bunnies, squirrels, and other critters than a constant parade of violence and destruction, of duplicitous politicians pandering for votes. But butterflies and rainbows are the proper domain of those who do battle for what is right and just, not those who wring their hands over the evil men do without confronting and doing battle against such evil.

Like most of you I take my excursions down “Forget Me Not Lane,” that lane being somewhat longer in my case than for most of you. And like many others I find much humor in the pompous assess that take themselves far too seriously, often making the innocent suffer in the process. But as with economics of which Henry Thoreau pointed out lends itself to much levity but cannot so easily be disposed there remains the ugliness of the world with which to contend. And while humor and the critters help us to maintain whatever equilibrium we can in the face of the ugliness all about us, there is nothing of humor to be found in the fact it cannot be a better world for your children until it is a better world for all children. And that to my mind should be the focus of attention on the part of leaders presuming themselves to be sane while leading the world in an insane direction toward nuclear Armageddon.