These passages from Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” seem particularly relevant right now…“At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge, … it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”Scrooge-“Are there no prisons?”“Plenty of prisons…”Scrooge-“And the Union workhouses.” . “Are they still in operation?”“Both very busy, sir…”“Those who are badly off must go there.”“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”Scrooge- “If they would rather die,” “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
When either the Senate or the House open the bill up for amendment I hope that it includes a requirement to remove the plaque with the sonnet “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus from the Statue of Liberty. It is obviously not true today, if it ever was.
A fling with the white king from the chess world, when the King of Clubs comes home for Poker.