Monday, October 3, 2022

The Queen

Back in the day, there were men referred to as "shade-tree mechanics." They were community fixtures - good guys who'd fix your car for a six-pack. You could count on their resourcefulness to get you back on the road. I am reminded of these men whenever I see the soft-spoken little lady they call Queen Elizabeth II. 

Besides that, I have a bone to pick with the queen. Instead of retiring, and turning the throne over to her aging son, Prince Charles, she drove deep into her nineties, preferring to die on that throne rather than relinquish power.  

We see too much of that in the world today, especially here in America. Look at Pelosi, McConnell, Grassley, Feinstein... I could go on and on. But, none so cling to power as d the Supreme Court justices who, to a man and woman, hold on to their raiments as though they, themselves, were royalty. They seem to forget that each of them is a mere political appointee.  

Lately, none has been so fixed as had Ruth Bader Ginsburg who, thoough strickened with cancer in her eightis, refusd to relinquish her seat on the bench. She chose to die with gavl in hand as though it were her salvation. At some point, the mantra of "public service," which they all extol, sadly devolves into pure vanity.  

If Ms. Ginsburg had been more considerate, she would have retired during President Obama's second term, while there was still plenty of time for him to pick a liberal successor. Rather, she stubbornly sallied forth into the Trump adminstration, dying at the age of 87, toward the end of his single term in office. There, a sliver of time remained - just enough for the wily Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, to offer up her empty seat to President Trump, who filled it with the conservative justice, Cavanaugh. From her deathbed, Ginsburg had asked that the seat be left vacant until the new adinistration took office. McConnell ignored her. More than any one person (perhaps, besides McConnell, himself, who took one justice from Obama, and another from Biden). Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a fit of vanity, delivered Roe v. Wade to the trash heep of history.  

Back to the queen: They made a movie of her life - "The Queen" starring Helen Mirren. In the movie, the queen's car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and she goes about fixing it with the pluck of a shade-tree mechanic. What a lady! What a queen. 

2 comments:

Tico said...

Yo Man, That's more of a practical take on self(ish life) preservation than what my take of it is..."That's The Way Of The World"!! To give benefit to that of the elder generation lacking confidence in the younger generation?! I doubt it! There's a proper way to stay in the mix (without getting in the way) in old age and still flip the calendar with the next generations.
Keep Bangin'It Out Cuz!
Tico

Eric D Stile said...

Very well said. I look at power a different way however. Power is in the hands that give it. For example; if the Secret Service walked away from President Biden while he was giving a speech in front of a crowd, what would that crowd have in front of them?