By. Madelyn D. Kamen, Dr. P. H.
I watch you, no more than six feet away from me. Looking straight ahead. Your face resolute, your eyes, unmoving. I wonder if you know what I am thinking, or even care. My guess is that you don't.
Part of the problem, I think, is that you are running with the wrong crowd. My mother use to say that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at who his friends are.
As far as I'm concerned, your friends are an immoral, degenerate group of thugs. And defensive as linebackers! They always seem to be standing close by, ready to pounce on anyone who dares to disagree with you or them.
As someone who once considered you a friend, I am surprised at some of the behavior you seem to have developed recently. So abusive, so uncaring. So duplicitous. If Machiavelli were alive today, he might have conferred a university degree on you: BTE, Bachelor of Trickery and Expediency. That's how bad I think you've become.
Your formal education was not at Machiavelli U., was it? On second thought, maybe it wasn't all that different. But, that's not for me to decide. And I would never hold it against you. I don't consider myself superior just because my education was unlike yours.
I don't look down on your family either. Just the opposite. I see your mother as a June Cleaver of sorts, pumps, pearl strands, wholesome hairdo. And your dad. Even if he got his education the same way you did (and remember what I said about not looking down on you), I think every action he takes is measured, prudent, sensible and cautious. No excesses for him.
One of your brothers got in a little trouble a ways back, but I figure every family has one a sheep of a different color. I don't blame you for his failings. And the rest of your siblings seem to have turned out okay.
You use to speak of your ideals. Now, you just repeat yourself, over and over again, no matter the topic. As if you are a wind-up doll. Of all of the characteristics you have developed over time, I dislike that one the most. I also think you are inflexible, uncompromising, intransigent, and lets face it, mentally-challenged.
I'm so grateful you only have eighteen months left in office.
Madelyn D. Kamen is a free-lance writer who has published short stories, poems, and essays in local and national magazines and online. Prior to establishing a document development company, she was an associate dean and professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. She was a graduate of the Leadership Texas Class of 1992 and was listed in Marquis' Who's Who in the Southwest and Who's Who in America. She is currently working on an anthology of short stories about everyday life.
