Happy Birthday, Sir Winston

It’s Winston Churchill’s 140th birthday today. Needless to say, I doubt there will be an observance in the White House. I wonder what Sir Winston would have made of Obama? Not much. I was casting about for a passage from the great man that might apply to Obama, and came up with this fragment from an obscure essay dismissing H.G. Wells for his various unfounded resentments against Britain. It’s not a perfect fit, but it does have some familiar cadences and traits that will remind you of the rise and character of our Lightworker president:

Mr. Wells was born in humble circumstances into an island community where great statesmen had broken down the barriers of privilege and caste, and where wise laws enforced by vigorous Parliaments kept open the paths that offered careers to talent. Son this wicked, purblind, capitalist society offered to our young man the benefits not only of elementary, but of liberal and scientific education. From the treasured libraries which the past genius of its race had filled, he reached down pregnant and inspiring volumes. The peace of a soberly-guided and secure realm sheltered this youth from foreign tyranny. He found, soon as he had power to think, that he had the right to express his thoughts to as many as cared to listen. He found without inheritance or favour the freedom to choose or change half-a-dozen occupations. He moved with ease to the true development of his native gifts. The base capitalists did not trouble about his indiscretions. They let him have his fling with mind and body. When his opinions were seen to be challenging and subversive, they did not attempt to silence him or punish him. On the contrary they pricked up their ears and began to listen. They turned their eyes upon Mr. Wells. They did more. They put their hands in their pockets and produced good money, offered him a chair and poured it into his lap. . . But nothing will placate Mr. H.G. Wells; nothing will soften his prejudices or abate his grievance; nothing will stop the mouth of his unappeasable brat.

Unfortunately the chair our Establishment bestowed on Obama happened to be in the Oval Office.

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