Dr. Ralph Doty has castigated a few determined and courageous people most of whom, unlike me, have never participated in a public peeing contest with a skunk. Some of these fine people who are looking out for the health of our children’s schools, the wise expenditure of our taxes and the defense of our voting rights will probably keep a very low profile after suffering from Doty’s buckshot.
Not me. I’m savoring my chance to write a reply to the Budgeteer and a curious incident yesterday suggests to me that my reply will be read with great interest.
I had to pick up a few groceries at the store last night after coming back from my high school reunion. As I stood at the meat counter picking out some ground chuck to toss on the grill someone patted me on my shoulder and said “Good work, Harry,” as he pushed by me with his shopping cart. I had no idea who he was or to what he referred. It occurred to me, however, that this little bit of encouragement could have been prompted by the publication the day before of Mr. Doty’s column.
A few year’s back I recall the excitement of historians and archaeologists when renovations were being done on the old Lincoln home in Springfield, Illinois. This gave them the chance to mine the old Lincoln outhouse for evidence of the Lincoln family’s daily lives before Abe became President of the United States. Dr. Doty has done much the same thing wading through private email only without the interval of a century to spare Mary Todd Lincoln the anguish of having her privacy invaded.
After a century of disuse the Lincoln privy offered archaeologists a nice dry environment to dig out detritus with their sieves, scalpels and brushes. Can Mr. Doty say the same?
