March 19, 2013
Mary Sanchez
The Kansas City Star

RE: Erratum & Addenda – Further comments on your column yesterday in the Miami Herald on Pope Francis and the quest for “a more just economic system”.

Ms. Sanchez,

As superb as my omelets are they really can’t be reheated.

After rereading both your column and my letter I decided, with great trepidation mind you, to fire up the grill and try to gild one of my world famous lilies.

It was Winston Churchill, and Allah willing, we will see his likes again, who said that taxing your way to prosperity is like standing in a bucket and trying to pick yourself up by the handle. I did not give the great man due credit. Mea culpa.

Your reference to “a more just economic system” is like a batting practice pitch. Letter high, off speed, sliders not allowed, and as big as grapefruit. Sometimes it is too easy to hit. Sometimes you over swing.

I think you, as an ink stained “wise Latina”, know where I am going.

For 53 years we have heard the cries for “a more just economic system” in Cuba. After 53 years of pushing that rock up the hill named “a more just economic system” we know that the problems, apparently insurmountable, are threefold:

1 – Breakfast
2 – Lunch
3 – Dinner

Now, with the death of Hugo Chavez, fellow thug and ladron, the quest for “a more just economic system” is on hold. They have to find another sap who will bankroll them. Since we are now in the 53rd consecutive bad harvest of the “rainbow stew” bush crop the search for “a more just economic system” will be again delayed.

You say that Senator Santorum is “a good Catholic Republican… using his faith as a fig leaf for a libertarian philosophy that grinds the poor”.

Forgive me. I thought I was well read on current events and History. I guess I am not. Further, I think I may have spent the last 5 or 6 decades on one of Jupiter’s lesser moons. Perhaps you could help me.

#1 – With 1900 as the starting point please tell me where and when – country and year – a “good Catholic Republican used his faith as a fig leaf for a libertarian philosophy that ground the poor?
#2 – Which country now has “a good Catholic Republican using his faith as a fig leaf for libertarian philosophy that grinds the poor” in charge?
#3 – Which continent – including Antarctica – has a country run by “a good Catholic Republican who uses his faith as a fig leaf for a libertarian philosophy to better grind the poor”?
#4 - Give up?
#5 – None. Nowhere. No way. No how. Never. Nunca.

Maybe you could tell me which country in Africa has “a good Catholic Republican using his faith as a fig leaf for a libertarian philosophy that grinds the poor”. You can exclude the 5 countries that still countenance slavery. It may take a while to find even “a good Catholic Republican” supply sider. Skip Zimbabwe. That place uses $10,000 bills as Preparation H substitutes. There are rumors, doubtless started by the rabid Republican Right-Wing press, of recipes for a cannibalistic diet for single dads of single moms. Low fat, high protein, no sodium, endless supplies…Don’t tell Mayor Bloomberg about it.

On a more joyous note, if you take a peek at the 2 greatest economic success stories of the past 25 years you find China and India.

45 years ago the Chinese used human excrement to fire up back yard tiny iron smelters. Honest. You could look it up. Whodathunk that today the biggest buyers of First Growth Bordeaux and Lamborghinis would be those wily buggers?

When India ceased exporting surgeons and importing cement plants and stopped using Gandhi as the paradigmatic template of “a more just economic system” the place exploded. It took a while but Kipling was right about those people.

It was as if someone, someone with an enormous sense of irony whether intentional or not, said “Rise up. You have nothing to lose but your chains.”

The more money they make the freer they become. The freer they become the more money they make. Free people with coins in their pocket do not invade their neighbors. Honest. Look it up.

My reference to the Hound should have been clearer. No one ever really leaves the Church. The Hound, the one described by Francis Thompson, is always on the scent. Maybe you can hear him.

Happy Easter!

KEVIN SMITH
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET