Have you ever hosted a party, and been stuck with one guest who just doesn’t want to leave? Have you ever had this one person in your home, who just doesn’t seem to grasp the party is over. You start clearing the plates, clanging them around in the kitchen and then start taking out the trash, convinced they’ll get the message but they make absolutely no move towards the door. This individual, is a boisterous person accustomed to being the center of attention. They go and refill their glass and start telling another boring story to anyone who will listen. Meanwhile you keep dropping not so subtle hints, “Can I get you your coat?” or “I really have to get up early in the morning,” but somehow they don’t appear to get the message. It’s as if they’re speaking in another language. Do they even speak the same language?
Well once upon a time, this very thing happened in the town of Democracy. Unity was just trying to have a party for everyone, so no one would feel left out, so she invited the entire nation. She worked hard to cook the most delicious food in every different flavor because she knew that people have different tastes. She and he and they invited musicians from small towns, farms, prairies, mountains, and big cities to play music and everyone was singing and dancing. They brought their children as well as dogs, cats, and other pets to join in the festivities.
But there was this one guest, who just wouldn’t dance. He sat and watched and criticized and made fun of everyone else, claiming he could do it all better than they could. When they asked him to get up to lead a song, he refused. Truth was he couldn’t carry a tune because he was tone deaf. And when a grease fire broke out in the kitchen instead of getting up and helping join the fire brigade to quickly put out the blaze, he ran in the opposite direction. He didn’t want to singe his hair.
Oh, thought Unity to herself, this is so sad. If only those people in the corner would stop listening to his stories. He tells the most fantastic tall tales and lies about how everyone in the world is out to get him and they believe what he says. And he keeps repeating that he is so brilliant and amazing. Yes, amazing. Every other word he uses is “amazing”. He must have a very limited vocabulary.
“Well it’s been a long day for me,” she said, “And it’s time to leave. Did you bring a coat?” she asked the guest in the corner who was looking grumpy.
“But I’m not finished,” he insisted, attempting to rearrange the orange poufy hair on his head.
Unity turned to her friends, “How could we, a nation, ever have invited him into our house? He is telling anyone who will listen, that his fun can’t be over this soon.”
The unwanted guest pounded his fists on the table. “If I don’t always win then someone is cheating.”
The others shook their heads, “What is this lunatic talking about? We live in a democracy.”
“Who wants to help me wash dishes?” said Unity. Then she whispered, “I can almost hear him dare us to take matters into our own hands and push him out the door. But I am too gracious a hostess to do that. I will calmly wait.”
Despite the grump’s hope that in their frustration to get rid of him, some guests would resort to violence, they linked arms together singing “We Shall Overcome”.
We hope that Unity and Democracy will not have to wait too long because we have a country to re-organize with liberty and justice for all. Mr. President it’s time to start saying your “good byes.”
Nadja Maril, Writer & Author 