Kim at dVerse is hosting Prosery, and she has given us a D.H. Lawrence line – “We look at him through the wrong end of the long telescope of time.” from his poem ‘Hummingbird.’ dVerse Poets – Prosery – Telescope of Time
“I think we ought to move tanks, the whole goddamned thing. Put a division in there, if necessary ….” Richard Nixon
So Tricky (Really)
Even though we look at him through the wrong end of the telescope of time doesn’t change the simple fact that he is still the same. Making him smaller doesn’t make him any less. And time is not elastic enough to change the facts, you can’t wallpaper over the truth, no matter how hard you try. No amount of forgiveness will enable forgetting. I know that those who’ve come after him have certainly made him look better, but really he’s not. To say one thing and do another, to promise what you know you will never do, never want to do, in spite of the innocent lives you trammelled, never even cared about. And for what, the vainglory of just maybe being a hero? The plumbers let you down? That wasn’t the real issue. Your smallness was your need to have power.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
The litany of Wounded Knee, Kent State, Vietnam, Cambodia, Watergate ….
parallax 
Perfect!
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Great title, Paul, and your words could apply to any of the little dictators throughout history. It is true that ‘making him smaller doesn’t make him any less. And time is not elastic enough to change the facts, you can’t wallpaper over the truth’.
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So many of them to apply it to, sadly. Thank you for your thoughts Kim, much appreciated 🙂
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Oh yeah… but it seems almost like good times compared to the present.
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That was my thought. The current squatter in the White House makes Tricky Dicky look like a prince among men.
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A saint no less 🙂
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Indeed.
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🙂
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Well, I’m expecting the Pope to announce Tricky’s sainthood the way the current one is going.
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Unfortunately, as more time passes, revisionists will continue to plant seeds to convince the unsuspecting.
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Yes, imagine in another space of time what the current one will be remembered as.
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Reblogged this on The Reluctant Poet.
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🙂
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Powerful poem
>
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Thank you Lyn
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I really like your beautiful blog. A pleasure to come stroll on your pages. A great discovery and a very interesting blog. I will come back to visit you. Do not hesitate to visit my universe. See you soon. 🙂
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Many thanks 🙂
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Paul, Presidents are generally concerned about their legacies. We have finally found one who doesn’t care how history will portray him…now that is a man without vision and with very few redeeming qualities to be remembered for!
I enjoyed your piece on Nixon. Are there any statues of him that need to be taken to a museum?
All the best! Cheryl
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It seems that there are a few like him, our bloke is very similar (though less corrupt). I believe there’s a Nixon bust at the senate, ironically it was from his time as VP.
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Yeah
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