Don't know if you are familiar with the past governor of Georgia, Zell Miller, who is now Georgia's junior senator in Washington or not. By the way - he is a democrat. I thought this article in the paper was very apropos:
Zell Miller knows how to boil things down to the basics. That's what Georgia's junior senator did Thursday when he explained why it's important that Saddam Hussein be defanged.
But he's also a good storyteller. Here's the text of Mr. Miller's remarks, made on the Senate floor about the need to help President Bush deal with Iraq. We couldn't say it any better.
"Mr. President, I have signed on as an original co-sponsor of the Iraq resolution, and I'd like to tell you a story about why I think it is the right path to take:
A few weeks ago, we were doing some work on my back porch back home, tearing out a section of old stacked rocks, when all of a sudden I uncovered a nest of copperhead snakes.
Now, I'm not one to get alarmed at snakes. I know they perform some useful functions, like eating rats. And when I was a young lad, I kept snakes as pets. I had an indigo snake, a bull snake, a corn snake and many others. I must have had a dozen king snakes at one time or another. They make great pets and you only had to feed them a mouse every 30 days.
I read all the books by Raymond C. Ditmars, who was the foremost herpetologist of his day. That's an expert on snakes.
For a while, I wanted to be a herpetologist, but the pull of being a big-league shortstop outran that childhood dream.
I reminisce this way to explain that snakes don't scare me like they do some people. And I guess the reason is that I know the difference between those that are harmless and those that will kill you.
In fact, I bet I may be the only senator in this body who can look at the last three inches of a snake's tail and tell you whether it's poisonous or not. I can also tell the sex of a snake, but that's another story.
A copperhead will kill you. It could kill one of my dogs. It could kill one of my grandchildren. It could kill any of my four great grandchildren. They play all the time where I found these killers.
And you know, when I discovered these copperheads, I didn't call my wife Shirley and ask her advice, like I do on most things. I didn't yell for help from my neighbors or take it to the city council. I just took a hoe and knocked them in the head and killed them. Dead as a doorknob.
I guess you could call it a unilateral action. Or pre-emptive or even bellicose and reactive.
I took their poisonous heads off because they were a threat to me. And they were a threat to my home and my family. They were a threat to all I hold dear.
And isn't that what this is all about?"
In God We Trust; God Bless America
Zell Miller knows how to boil things down to the basics. That's what Georgia's junior senator did Thursday when he explained why it's important that Saddam Hussein be defanged.
But he's also a good storyteller. Here's the text of Mr. Miller's remarks, made on the Senate floor about the need to help President Bush deal with Iraq. We couldn't say it any better.
"Mr. President, I have signed on as an original co-sponsor of the Iraq resolution, and I'd like to tell you a story about why I think it is the right path to take:
A few weeks ago, we were doing some work on my back porch back home, tearing out a section of old stacked rocks, when all of a sudden I uncovered a nest of copperhead snakes.
Now, I'm not one to get alarmed at snakes. I know they perform some useful functions, like eating rats. And when I was a young lad, I kept snakes as pets. I had an indigo snake, a bull snake, a corn snake and many others. I must have had a dozen king snakes at one time or another. They make great pets and you only had to feed them a mouse every 30 days.
I read all the books by Raymond C. Ditmars, who was the foremost herpetologist of his day. That's an expert on snakes.
For a while, I wanted to be a herpetologist, but the pull of being a big-league shortstop outran that childhood dream.
I reminisce this way to explain that snakes don't scare me like they do some people. And I guess the reason is that I know the difference between those that are harmless and those that will kill you.
In fact, I bet I may be the only senator in this body who can look at the last three inches of a snake's tail and tell you whether it's poisonous or not. I can also tell the sex of a snake, but that's another story.
A copperhead will kill you. It could kill one of my dogs. It could kill one of my grandchildren. It could kill any of my four great grandchildren. They play all the time where I found these killers.
And you know, when I discovered these copperheads, I didn't call my wife Shirley and ask her advice, like I do on most things. I didn't yell for help from my neighbors or take it to the city council. I just took a hoe and knocked them in the head and killed them. Dead as a doorknob.
I guess you could call it a unilateral action. Or pre-emptive or even bellicose and reactive.
I took their poisonous heads off because they were a threat to me. And they were a threat to my home and my family. They were a threat to all I hold dear.
And isn't that what this is all about?"
In God We Trust; God Bless America
And a good use of symbolism, notice the cutting off the snakes' heads. Not much of a literal stretch to the reality that will soon take place in Iraq.
