Dear America,

Don't Ask! but oh, do tell...

this is a tale of two faces

both pretty and neither outpaces

with candid remarks

disgrace indeed sparks

while all elegance falls out of good graces

Apparently, the new black according to international law, under "propriety/lady etiquette" is slipping into grey area, the fine lines are starting to blur...scuzi, pardon moi...

For Carla and The Ambitious is on the loose; now prowling and roaming literary circles seems to be the latest fashion of the avant garde, peddling the indiscreet with daring impunity and high style.

The nerve of her, really; to quote Carla, quoting Michelle, "Don't Ask! It's hell. I can't stand it."

According to Sarkozy's second lady, our first lady whispered sweet burning somethings in her ear; openly and unsparingly, Michelle didn't even attempt to pass off illusions of grandeur, held in high esteem and sheltered deep in Americana, of her role as close to royalty as we get -- she made no ivy league try at
even hiding her true disdain -- she laid it right out, "it's hell," oh bloody hell, I tell you, "I can't stand it."

Of course, it may not be true; but what if it is?

Besides the intital embarassment of being party to the likelihood of an international cat fight about to ensue, what would motivate another first lady to attack our first lady in such a way -- even if sparring with the truth? What would bring her to that point of no return?

It is funny when we call the President's wife, the first lady; in truth, Michelle is actually the 44th, just as Laura was 43rd, and so on and so on.  The reality of title alone -- "first lady" -- of role, of place in the world, remains to be found more in metaphor and history, than in the specifics of the long line of women who came before and in actuality. 

For she stands for America.

Just as this seems to be going off message, let us twist this drivel one more time; as I started this day reading an article highlighting the "happiness gap", comparing the level of happiness of whites and blacks from the 1970's and over the last several decades; as time should have its way with us, blacks are showing greater progress than whites, according to this study and making little difference of economic status, in the pursuit of happiness.

The gap is slimming; blacks are finding a way to find happiness in spite of the imagined inequities and self-fulfilling  prophecy of austerity and lack; perhaps the generation holding tight to old truths and past wrongs, are finally giving way to new thought, allowing for the shackles of the past to unveil a life filled with hope and prosperity -- and maybe even a little happiness -- if nothing else.

But the thing is, flowing with the daily chatter, catching wind of the prevailing attitudes chiming in with wanton commentary and personal opinion, it led me down a tangent unsuspecting...and that being, the early slave trade in America (as well as along the Barbary Coast... then into the lands of "Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters"...but that would take days to traverse, and we don't have that kind of time today).

And it was there, in a sea of print, I found a prized-worthy quote:

"when someone removes the cataracts of whiteness

 from our eyes, and when we look with unclouded vision

on the bloody shadows of the American past,

we will recognize for the first time the Afro-American,

who was so often second in freedom,

was also second in slavery." 

Lerone Bennett Jr.

author and African American

The first flings of free-enterprise in this country had everything to do with the tabacco industry -- how to plant, process, and package, and bring it to market; white, volunteers -- commonly known as "free-willers" -- gladly exchanged a few years of indentured servitude for free passage to the new world.  Some 300,000 of these "free-willers" came over between the years 1620 - 1775, amounting to every two out of three voyagers, free choosing to migrate to America under such terms.  Only, upon arrival, finding their rights all but gone, and at a point of no return; they were stuck, and now slave to the master and commander.

But the seed was planted decades before, as the motivation of boosting the number of migrant workers to do their dirty work was so great, England had long been cleaning out their prisons, and sending to America their criminals and the unwanted  -- boasting the growth of the happiness factor back at home, I'm sure, albeit that study not to be found; while no one was safe, forwarding women, and children -- as young as toddlers, strikingly became all too easy to do.  Sometime around the early 1600's, Australia became the new dumping ground for derelicts, but the point is, many of the early "settlers" were simply migrant workers -- and predominantly white.

Whites were not only well documented to have been slaves and servants throughout world history,  they were the FIRST slaves of America!

Slavery, in any color, is nothing to stand up and be happy about, whether you came first or second; no question, and no doubt about it.

But, being First Lady, of the nation commonly recognized as the leader of the Free World -- even if for the 44th time -- now THAT is something, when afforded such stately position and sweet success, to talk about!  A reality that, if one should ever find herself  -- and maybe for the first time -- a situation one could almost be very, very proud of.  A position that, some might say, is happy-stance (just made that up) to remarkable timing, unfathomable good fortune, with luck and pure chance playing brilliantly to that end.

To speak, on behalf of all 43 first ladies who have come before, and gossip amongst the wives of the politico-elite around the entire globe, is a rare thing.

While on the contrary, to be in a position, where all girls, in a rainbow of color and custom, look to you with honor, watching your every move, and quite possibly hanging on your every word, is an everyday occurrence.

Matter of fact, the entire world is watching, listening, imagining how in bloody hell could this ever happen; we're talking about our first lady!  Did she or didn't she, it doesn't matter now; we're nestled in the bottom of a frigate and past the point of no return. 

The word is out and it ain't pretty; with one click, the world sees our first lady as whiner in chief -- and not of the good, nouveau beaujolais kind; while we witness Sarkozy's second time around exhibiting behavior unbecoming of a lady.  Either way, the manuscript and the media holds us hostage to the titilating amusement of it all.

I would laugh, if only it wasn't so sad.

Make it a Good Day, G