Little Boy Blue

Dear Editor,

Anyone who has been aware of the obstruction that has recently occurred in the Nebraska Legislature must certainly be appalled, not to mention embarrassed for the great state of Nebraska.

One senator, like the fly on an elephant's carcass, is able, by using legislative rules, to drive the other senators into a tizzy and produce all kinds of gridlock. What is it that the senators are dealing with by virtue of dealing with this obdurate senator?

Based on observation of this senator, he is obviously a pseudo-intellectual who, while he has picked up some impressive facts both historical and literary, along with a rather sketchy religious formation, he is the perfect example of the kind of intellectual that Alexander4 Pope was referring to when he wrote in his Essay on Man: "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing; drink deep of the empyrean spring."

Very much like Malcolm X of old, who, according to biographical and documented evidence, spent many, many hours in libraries and through his own eclectic learning, as opposed to a disciplined learning through mentors who could have guided him or at least warn him about the danger of such books as Mein Kampf, you are able to impress a lot of people and persuade them of your great intellectual prowess.

Such individuals appear down through the centuries and they deserve the name of iconoclasts, dictionary defined as "a breaker or destroyer of images, esp.. those set up for religious veneration, or, one who attacks cherished beliefs as if they were in error or based on superstitions."

There are many a synonym for the work iconoclast, all of which would indicate who the tormented senators in the Nebraska Legislature are dealing with on a dail basis. Here are a few, to wit: critic, cynic, dissenter, heretic, non-believer, radical, rebel, unbeliever, denouncer, ruiner, hippie, flower-child (all of which indicate a person who goes against normal behavior or belief).

But hope springs eternal, and perhaps, someday, this senator will wake up and his better angels will dominate his personality and peace will return to the Nebraska Legislature. In the meantime, let us compare this senator to a popular Mother Goose rhyme, where we might see this senator a little bit like

Little Boy Blue

Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn.

The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn.

Where is the boy who looks after the sheep?

"He's under the haystack, fast asleep."

Will you wake him? "No, not I;

For if I do,d he'll be sure to cry.

Sincerely,

James McHale

McCook, Neb.

Moving on