Once upon a time there was a young fella that had a big dream. His dream was to escape the world of difficulty into which he had been born. He grew up with his grandparents supporting his dream day by day.

He was in many ways a special kid: smart, handsome, talented in so many ways. He learned how to speak in public and after convincing a nation, sickened of war, that he was cut from different cloth, was elected to lead that nation.

On his first day behind the Big Desk, a couple of men in suits came to visit him in his new office and said, “Sir, we like what you say about lots of stuff, we even like the fact that you are a black man. But we don’t like it when you talk about ending our war. You see, we have spent trillions of dollars making our nation (and the folks that own our military industry) strong and rich and we simply can’t have you upsetting all that with such loose talk about, well, you know … peace.”

“So, be a good citizen, lead a safe and full-term presidency, sleep at night knowing your young and pretty wife and children are also safe … and let the big boys take care of the hard stuff. Are we clear?”

So, the young man with the big dream thought about what the men in the suits had said and decided that if he really wanted to help bring folks, no matter what color or stripe, into health and prosperity (as he knew he could) he would keep his beautiful voice quiet when it came to ending our forever war. So he did.

Pat Clark

Sequim