Going Low, Or Going High

THE SATIRICAL POLITICAL CARTOON, which was actually a photo of of Mitch McConnell,showing him sitting at table in a restaurant,inundated in grated chesse, buried in a mound up to his neck,as if sinking into quicksand. A server is grinding the cheese down upon him, the pile growing higher, on the verge of totally covering the man. The caption reads "just say when, Mitch", while McConnell stares blankly ahead,motionless, unresponsive. So now we are ridiculaing him for his evident illness, ministrokes,perhaps, but whatever the case, certainly not a good sign, despite his doctor clearing him to continue work. I thought the cartoon was funny.I was alone when I saw it,and I laughed inwardly.I despise Mitch McConnell more than nearly any other person on the planet, nearly but not quite as much as I despise Donald Trump, and have for a very long time. In the great never ending contest to achieve the championship of my antipathy, its still Trump, by a hair. I don't enjoy despising people, or at least I don't think I do, not consciously anyway, but, well, things happen, the years go by, and I, like I suspect most people do,tend to accumulate a lengthening list of despicable people. When I was young I tended to like everybody, and was known for my positive, philanthropic attitude towards humanity. That perhpas naive purity of spirit has long since eroded with age and experience into something far more cynical, far less naively generous. Well, and then, that's life, as we say. One of my smart friends, noticng my prolivity for avoiding at all costs making unkind remarks about people or harboring hatred in any form, once said to me, "there is nothing wrong with despising despicable people". I agreed with him then, and I agree with him now. But I never imagined that when I reached my current age I would have accumulated as much personal animous towards so many people as I indeed have. But I have my limits. Just as I sometimes become impatient with my fellow Trump hating progressives for ridiculing Trump's hair, appearance,and weight, I have doubts about whether makding fun of Mitch McConnell's apparent illness is a good idea. Just at we have with Trump, with Mcconnell we have an anormous stockpile of his words and deeds to draw from when we feel the need to criticize him; words and deeds eminently worthy of severe criticim and rebuke. Trump lied aobut losing a presidential election; should we really bother, even for a moment, to scoff at him for lying about his weight? Similarly, Mitch Mcconnell has for decades made one stupid, hateful remark after another, and has supported legislation of the most vile nature, legislation harmful to the nmany, beneficial only to the few. He has done these things when he was evidently perfectly healthy, mentally and physically. If we want material with which to ridicule and rebuke him, there is no shortage of it. As Mitch MccConnell (I cannot bring myself to refer to him as "Senator") nears the end of his life, and we near the end of ours, and we look back on our own words and deeds, precisely how do we wish to remember ourselves? We alreadly know that we will remember Mcconnell as a greedy, power hungry politician who desparately clung to power far beyond his abilty to be effective, an ability he never really had in any event. We will remember him as a perfidious purveyor of legislation harmful to the American people, favoravle only ot the elite wealthy few. Isn't that enough? As for how we wish to remmeber ourselves, I can only speak for myself, but this I can already say: I want to look back on my life and be able to honsetly assert:I did it my way,and my way was taking the high road, the path of quality of character, and nobility of soul.