William S. Friday

I would like to 
preface this by saying, 
I understand.  

Of late, I believe you to be 
leaning in the right direction, 
as far as which side of history 
you want to be on.  

Much the same way, I’m sure, 
Mussolini was leaning in the 
right direction, just before 
the Partisans of Dongo shot 
his body full of holes, then 
hung him upside-down by his heels 
from a metal girder at the local 
gas station, leaving him to rot there 
for days, and giving the townsfolk 
time to beat his corps with sticks, 
and turn his face unrecognizable 
from all the jagged rocks, 
thrown by their children.

Joe, did I 
forget to mention that 
I understand?

Now I’m not saying that 
this is what will become of you, 
as it did of Il Duce.  You were 
alive in 1945, right Joe?  

Raised on all the stories about 
the brave freedom fighters of Europe 
who stood in there and took all 
the shit the Third Reich could deliver, 
until those brave, everyday fellas, 
who looked a lot like Tom Hanks, 
finally showed up to save them 
from the horrors of the isms.  
Yeah, the brave, everyday fellas.  
The ones who liberated the 
oppressed, then came home to 
their GI Bill, at least the ones 
who looked like Tom Hanks.  
And their endless hope, that hope 
you’ve spent the last four years 
telling anyone who will listen to you, 
still exists. As long as 
they look like Tom Hanks.

And while we’re 
on the subject of 
history, Joe,

remember that time, I’m sure 
your father told you about it, 
when after they rolled over Poland, 
FDR gave the Nazis that billion dollars 
in military weaponry to fortify their 
defenses, ahead of their successful campaign 
against France? Oh fuck, wait Joe, wait, 
FDR never did that, did he?  
So why are you doing it now, Joe?  
Why are you giving and giving 
billions on billions of dollars 
to a country that told your grandfathers, 
and your grandfather’s sons, and 
then told you that their entire 
mission in life was to forever make dead, 
forever make forgotten, millions of 
people that they keep telling you, 
aren’t even fully human?  

For fuck’s sake, Joe.  
For the holy fucking sake 
of God, Joe.

I would like to end this, 
as I began, by saying, 
I understand.  

I can see what you’re doing, 
I grasp the dialectic, I see 
the long game you’re playing.  
Save ourselves from ourselves.  
Save democracy today, 
save humanity after you win 
the next election, for every 
two steps forward, there must 
always be one step back.  
It’s the old pragmatist’s 
way of things, and you, Joe, 
are very, very old.  

But that’s not 
the way we work 
anymore, Joe.

History remembers, because 
history’s children are never 
allowed to forget.  
And the end is never, ever 
justified by the means.

I’m going to end this, 
because all things end, Joe.  

And because you know this 
better than almost anyone 
currently in political office, 
I will tell you that 
the right side of history 
is not the winning side of 
a mass extinction.  That 
the right side of history 
is not the wrong side of compassion.  

And that the right side of history 
is never seen in the form of someone 
whose idea of a safe space is a space 
that isn’t safe, because when they look 
at the people on the other side, 
they can’t ever feel safe, 
until they’re all dead.

Do you understand, Joe?