He Ain't Don Quixote
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David Brooks, who is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, is a well-known conservative writer. However, I read much of Brooks' writings even though he and I differ on many political issues. Therefore, my readers will wonder why I spend time mulling over Brooks' ideas. 
There are two main reasons. The first is that he is smart. He graduated from the University of Chicago. While the U of C isn't my alma mater, it did save my life on two different occasions. The first time was when I was pining away to a friend about wishing that I had taken some writing classes while in college or graduate school. My friend happened to be a professor at U of C. Dr. Olmsted volunteered to teach me how to write. Every Friday afternoon for about a half dozen years, we met for a couple of hours. While I have a way to go before The New York Times hires me, I am quite capable of writing grammatically accurate essays. Dr. Olmsted did save my writing life. Drs. Zorn and Liauw saved my physical life, which was threatened by prostate cancer, which had spread outside the prostate. My prostate was removed robotically. A couple of years later, I had two months of radiation and hormone therapy. I am into my sixth year of being cancer free. Therefore, whenever I read about someone who graduated from the U of C, I take note. The other reason that I like Brooks is that he is quiet, logical, and thoughtful. He isn't some arrogant columnist from the right espousing nonsense. When he sees a problem that the political right isn't addressing, he will write about it. That brings me to a column several weeks ago entitled The Dark Knight. In reality, the title also caught my attention due to another knight, the knight-errant, Don Quixote. That knight is a mentor of mine. Therefore, I read with interest Brooks' The Dark Knight, who is the Donald. Brooks' had several points about which I was in full agreement. Brooks wrote about the fact that people do not have to like a dark knight. Nonetheless, they are often see a dark knight as their muscle and voice "in a dark, corrupt and malevolent world." Interestingly, Brooks was a history major at the U of C and presented several other dark knights of the past like Aaron Burr, Mitchell Palmer, and Joe McCarthy. The Donald is today's dark knight. He taps into the lowest common denominator of many Americans. Therein lies one of the central reasons for the Donald's appeal. Brooks says that the Donald is their dark knight. The Donald will enter the fray of gloom and doom, save America, and make America great again. Brooks, who majored in history at the U of C, sites a list of the Donald's diatribes with facts.
My mentor, the knight-errant, Don Quixote, isn't like the dark knight, the Donald. The man of La Mancha said, "The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water." Don Quixote also goes on noble quests.
Since Don Quixote is not with us, we need to vanquish our dark knight by not voting for the Donald. We can joist not with a windmill but a windbag. If we do, the man of La Mancha would be proud of us.
Visit the The Last Lecture page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Dancing with Death page to read more about this topic.
Visit the "Don Quixote" page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Donald the Dumb page to read more about this topic.
Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does." Visit the Stupid is As Stupid Does page to read more about this topic. 09/19/16 Follow @mountain_and_me |
