"The Fact Remains..."

As children we all no doubt heard the Hans Christan Anderson fairy tale entitled "The Emperor's New Clothes." To refresh your memories, this is the story of a very gullible ruler of a very prosperous kingdom that was obsessed with the notion of not only being the king, but always looking and acting the part. The king's fixation on appearances lead him to be duped by a pair of crafty swindlers who promised the king that they would fashion for him the most superb suit of clothes, the likes of which had never been seen before by man nor beast, fashioned out of the very finest and rarest of cloth. So extremely fine was the cloth that it was invisible to the naked eye (I couldn't pass up that comparison) to anyone who was either too unintelligent or unworthy to hold such an esteemed position as did the king. The king, bless his impressionable heart, could not himself see the cloth, but feared making that observation known to his alleged tailors would place himself in the category of lacking the requisite acumen and thus be deemed an interloper to the crown. Fearing the wrath of their employer, the emperor's attendants also squelched their personal observations and went along with the ruse.

Within due time the swindler tailors proclaim that the garment was finished and ready to be proudly displayed before the emperor's loyal subjects. With a trumpet fanfare the king assembles his entourage and proceeds with head held high to walk with much pomp and circumstance through the streets of his kingdom. As the course of the fable goes, it wasn't too long into the procession before a small boy in the crowd makes the obvious discernment that the good king was as naked as a jaybird and shouts out, "Hey y'all, the dude ain't wearin' no clothes!" (or something to that effect). The crowd must come to grips with the fact that out of the mouth of this mere child comes the stark realization that the king indeed literally has nothing to hide. Most people with a shred of personal awareness would have come to the painful and embarrassing realization that indeed the child was speaking truth and beat a hasty retreat. Not so this emperor. Continuing undaunted along the avenue amidst muffled laughter, the emperor's indomitable pride refused to allow him to face the painful fact that his credibility was literally hanging out.

So, what's this fairy tale of old got to do with the price of bagels in Queens? Follow the comparison... It's been but a mere three days since the tax payers march on Washington, and the current topic de jour is not what the gathering was all about, but how many people actually participated. Somebodies, a lot of somebodies, are missing the point. Many media outlets are now disputing the number of people who actually took part in the rally, suggesting that the numbers were grossly inflated by the employment of photographs showing huge throngs of people in the streets of the capital that were actually archived photos from previous marches. If indeed some conservative celebrators of the effort grossly overstepped the bounds of truth by deliberately misleading their audience with falsified documentation, then indeed they should be chastised for having done so. To stoop to that type of unnecessary persuasion doesn't elevate the worthy purpose of the march, but hurtfully degrades it.

But here's the point... Whether 50,000, 500,000 or a million plus, the fact remains that the folks who did take part, from every corner of these United States, were there for a reason...and it wasn't because they had accumulated stagnant air miles that were about to expire and a September weekend in Washington, D.C. seemed like a good idea at the time. These folks came with a determined purpose...to proclaim, to shout , if you will, that their President in Chief and his minions in waiting in the west wing of the White House and the Halls of Congress are parading before the very wise and insightful American people with no clothes on. We see you, Mr. President, Harry Reid and Nancy Polesi, and we aren't at all enamored with the view.

And here's the even larger point... Set side, if one must, this past weekend's March on Washington, the undeniable fact remains that there has been fairly and accurately documented the hundreds and thousands of every day American citizens that packed Town Hall meetings all across the country throughout the month of August to voice their united disapproval of our government's liberal and socialistic tract, yet the powers-that-be still refuse to acknowledge their existence. Like the emperor in the fable, they choose to see only what they perceive to be the facts that match their narrowly defined ideological and egotistical agendas. They stand naked before the American public and insist that it is they alone who possess the intelligence, power and position to discern and emanate truth. We would laugh out loud at them if we weren't so afraid that their antics could be the imminent downfall of us all.

Mr. President, your creditability is showing, and it ain't a pretty sight. It is past time for you to realize how vulnerable your present intractable position really is. The American people will tolerate only so much insensitivity and smugness directed at "we the people" before we take matters into our own hands and relegate you and your liberal compatriots to nothing more than a forgettable footnote in history. A naked buffoon or a servant of all the people. It's still your choice. Put some clothes on and choose wisely.