The sharing of praise for all who suffered and aided the suffering made me think of another speech, Henry V’s at Agincourt. That is a kind of proleptic memorial for all who fought with their brother the king, looking forward to the future celebration of such heroes. The prologue to the Agincourt act describes how visits from the king cheered his men, giving them “a little touch of Harry in the night.” Shakespeare makes oblique reference here to “the king’s touch,” which was supposed to heal people. In a more superstitious age that is how people might have seen the fact that the wounded congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, first opened her eyes right after Obama visited her. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, her friend who was in the hospital room when she opened her eyes, says that the moment seemed as miraculous as when her children were born.
The loudest cheers at the Tucson speech were for the news that “Gabby,” as she was known to all her many friends, was recovering. Perhaps there was the sound, there, of a nation recovering.
- Author, professor, and "public intellectual"
Garry Wills, on President Obama's Jan. 12 speech in Tuscon.
Can Obama healing those afflicted with scrofula be far behind?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if his teleprompter also has healing powers?
ReplyDeleteThere's a presidential election next year. I hope Craptocracy will be back in business.
ReplyDeleteMaking fun of US politics is like reviewing the same bad movie over and over again.
ReplyDeleteCraptocracy should focus on Zambian politics.
ReplyDeleteMaybe my next item will be about Zambia.
ReplyDeleteI took Craptocracy as a serious news outlet. Was it not? Simply quoting Filmer places it above anything else that has been written in the last 450 years.
ReplyDeleteIf I start working on Huckabee jokes now, maybe I will have some new ones by 2012.
ReplyDelete