20160803 (first class)

Got two first class letters in the

Mail yesterday. A small one in

A  blue thank you envelope from

My recently departed neighbor

West of me. And the other from 

The Big Kahuna—B and O were

The notable initials on the letter

That came in a creamy off-white

Cranes’y kind of formal paper

Envelope with the THE WHITE

HOUSE - WASHINGTON as the 

Return address. Unless you follow

This blog assiduously you likely

Don’t recall I had written the 

President (quite by accident)

On Hitler’s birthday.* I tried

To state forcefully that I 

Disagreed with his announced

Decision to modernize and 

Upgrade our stockpile of 

Nuclear weapons. I had some

Idea they had a shelf life and 

Must be periodically replaced

With identical but fresher (or 

Improved) bombs reliably to

Go boom when implemented

Against whoever might be the 

Demons of the current axes

Of evil. (Be such a shame

To send them all that way only

Not to go off—like giving the 

Enemy a free but possibly battered

Example of current weapons

Technology from which to 

Learn our carefully guarded

Secrets). So that was April 20

and BO’s reply addressed just

To me, a missive bearing full

Forty-six cents Pitney Bowes

Postage (first class) dated 

July 28th. Three whole months—

Not at all bad for a guy who’s

Plate is a lot fuller than mine

(Can there be degrees of fullness?

I know about glasses that are half

Full, which means they’re not

Full by half the total volume)

My plate may be full, but his 

Has heaps in addition. In any 

Event the contents of the letter

Don’t even come near my topic—

The spending of a trillion dollars

For weapons we cannot morally

Use. His first line reveals he is

Actually writing one letter

To a group of us who may be 

Upset about “nuclear non-

Proliferation, arms control,

And energy.” Three birds, one

Stone. So he blah blahs about

Controls and reductions he’s 

Set about and never addresses

Making new ones while, as he

Puts it, “our goal is to accelerate

Dismantlement of retired [my 

Emphasis] United States nuclear

Warheads by 20 percent.” He

Ain’t gonna dismantle the new

Ones—just the retired ones.

What a consolation. Kind of

Like the time I wrote Steve 

Allen about the incautious

Use of hypnosis on his show

And he sent me a 5 by 7 glossy

Scribbled, “Thanks for writing,

Steve Allen.” But the thank you

Note (also first class) was hand

Written and stated she appreciated

My being a considerate neighbor.

That was nice. She didn’t have to,

They had already left.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016

*http://filosuferz.blogspot.com/2016/04/20160422-letters.html