As the night of the great pumpkin was drawing to a close, who should pop up but
my little friend, thespian and sometime model, Horatio H. Hamster Esq. After we
exchanged our mutually happy greetings, I asked if he had been out trick-or-treating.
He replied that he had stopped doing that long ago, because he was always being given
candy corn, which he hates. Horatio much prefers the "real stuff", rather than the artificial
kinds.
When I asked him the reason for his clever, joker costume, he said that he was
dressed as Harlequin, as an aid for his dramatic readings from Shakespeare, which he
was doing as a fund raiser for his theater group, the Quadruped Players. He said that
he was doing selections from the roles of the court jesters and fools, from a number
of the plays, because those were the characters who often had some of the best lines
in the plays. And he further explained that the reason for that was, that only the fools
could speak the truth to power without fear of reprisal.
"Yes, much like today", I said. And then I got a bit carried away and said, "Alas!
Poor Yorick. I knew him Horatio".
After a moment's hesitation, Horatio responded, "Forgive me sir, but you would make
a terrible Hamlet. You're much too old for the part."
"Yes", I agreed. "I'll try to control my theatrical ambitions."
And then I asked how things were going at the theater, other than the usual fund-
-raising difficulties, and he said that the company is still having push-back, following
the vote to evict Donald J. Skunk and Vladimir Pig, from the Quadruped Playhouse.
The family of nearly blind and deaf foxes is still calling for a recount, and they have
persuaded the blind mole to join them in questioning the honesty of the vote totals.
He said that this irrational suspicion and bickering was causing such a weakening
of the company that it could collapse and disintegrate.
I told him that I perfectly understood the turmoil he and his friends were going
through, because of all the distrust of our own honest elections, which is being promoted
by the treasonous lies of the members of one political party. That party is controlled
by one, bitter looser, who continues to spread his poisons in the waters and airwaves
of the nation every day. We have to remember that our honest elections are the
bedrock basis for our democracy, and those who deliberately undermine our faith
in our elections can destroy democracy for all of us.
As I was finishing a quick sketch of Horatio Harlequin, I told Him that I would
be happy to buy a ticket to see him perform his selections from Shakespeare, and
I promised that the currency would not be candy-corn. He thanked me with a tip
of his comedic crown, and then as he was departing I said, "To be or not to be!"
"Too old", he reminded me.
"Yes, I know", I replied. "The answer to the question is is definitely a ....
Not to Be!"
Eugene P. McNerney
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