Wednesday, August 26, 2009

To: The President of the United States of America



From: Charles H. Leck (just an ordinary, average, tax paying citizen)

RE: I think I found, along the way, something you appear to have lost!

I was travelling today in the Land of Oz, having a simply wonderful time. It is a spectacular place with just oodles of things to do and see. But, you know that don’t you? For you have been there recently also. I know that, Mr. President, because I found something there that I believe you lost or left behind.

While visiting Oz, I had the pleasure of meeting up with Lion. What a marvelous character! I gave him a couple of bucks and asked him to sing his famous song for me. It was great fun to listen to him.

Courage!
What makes a King out of a slave?
Courage!
What makes the flag on the mast to wave?
Courage!
What makes the elephant charge his tusk, in the misty mist or the dusky dusk?
What makes the muskrat guard his musk?
Courage!
What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder?
Courage!
What makes the dawn come up like thunder?
Courage!
What makes the Hottentot so hot?
What puts the "ape" in apricot?
What have they got that I ain't got?
At that point in the song, the entire listening crowd rose up and shouted together: “Courage!”

I chatted with Lion at great length and the conversation slowly turned around to you and we found that we shared common opinions of you – that you are a charming and quite dashing fellow with all sorts of possibilities, but that you seemed to have lost your courage. And Lion felt that you had indeed lost it on a recent visit to Oz, where you were confronted by a gaudy gathering of folks at a Town Meeting who scared you quite silly.

Sure enough, Lion took me to the spot where the town meeting was held and there, in a little back room, I found your courage lying on the floor and trying to hide behind a little pile of boxes and old bumper stickers over in one corner. The bumper stickers had been discarded by someone. They all said: “Yes we can!” The boxes contained apparently unwanted copies of your book, The Audacity of Hope.

Well, I gathered up your courage and brought it back for you and I have it right here in my home if you would like to reclaim it.

After all, sir, what good is a Lion or a President without courage? That appears to be the key question these days.

Dorothy supplied the answer to that question, of course, when she said” “Why, no good at all!”

Get hold of me if you’d like your courage back!

No comments:

Post a Comment