August 7, 2007
by Volt Penn

Dear Tony,

A few nights ago I was watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. When the Nazi's pried open the Ark of the Covenant, I thought about you. The ghouls held within erupted forth twisting human faces into sardonic caricatures, melting ears, eyes and noses like hot candle wax. My guess is that Steven Spielburg was trying to imply that any religion or political cult can breed a pox of unspeakable horrors, and any container harboring these mongers of death and destruction is best kept hidden, away from prying eyes. 

In that first Indiana Jones movie the art director had to condense the disfiguration process into a few seconds, but in your case it's taken almost three years for your once-youthful, handsome features to morph into an unflattering, distorted version of someone who hasn't turned away but has witnessed pure evil. In viewing your picture here and here, you'll see how your face went from dreamboat boy-next-door, to the paranoid, hostile old man you are now. I know about your battle with cancer. I've been there, too. But I don't think illness can explain the complete disintegration of your visage. My guess is that you lifted the lid of Cheney's Pandora box and experienced evil first-hand. You dared to enter where angels fear to tread.

Inside Cheney's box you saw there really were no A-bombs hidden in Iraq. Is that when your Scout leader facade first started to tatter? When you peeked further inside and read the report that said there really were no W.M.D. in Iraq did you laugh, along with everyone else, as your boss played the fool and looked under his bed for the nonexistent Iraqi W.M.D.? Well, now you know that he knew from the beginning there wasn't enough fertilizer in that donkey-kong country to blow up a little Piggly-Wiggly.

What about the time you looked even deeper into the box and discovered the North American Union? Did you recoil in revulsion knowing your masters had sold us all out and were screwing our once proud nation into just another backwater country filled with wage slaves. I guess that cruel, accusatory look that's now etched on your face came when you first saw the plan to construct a four football field wide super-duper highway from the Panama Canal through Texas all the way up to Montreal, Canada.

Then there's the time you shuffled around inside the box and found the Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act and Wiretapping Act. I can't image what it's like trying to deal with those three furies, but they turned a mother's perfect son into a boney-fingered control freak. You know that if one of your children says even so much as a tiny discouraging word about your fearless leader and his bogus war on terror, then he/she will be subject to arrest and torture. For democracy's sake, Tony.the government is tapping our phones.  That's screwing with our free speech. Is that when your hair started to turn white and fall out?

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Tony, you used to be a squeaky-clean professional, all wrapped up in red, white and blue, but now you're scarier than the plague. Is that because you've witnessed not only the destruction of the dollar, but the mandatory psychological testing and drugging for all those square pegs who can't fit into the round hole of the 'New Freedom Initiative'? Congressman Ron Paul was horrified when presented with the Real ID Act. What's next Tony, social security numbers tattooed on our forehead?

Then there were the monstrous lies that led this country directly into hell's inferno. When you were a talking head for Murdock, Inc., you looked more honest than George Washington. You remember him - the guy who could not tell a lie. But these days, when I see you on TV standing behind the lectern, trying to spin around some reporter's honest question, you're manipulative and humorless. Does that gaunt look come from finally seeing the Downing Street Memo and other revealing documents with your own eyes?

Do words such as biological and chemical weapons, nuclear weapons, and yellow cake uranium keep you awake at night? You have become a scrawny freak, but maybe that's what happens when decent folk realize that the monsters they work for are buying fake news and engaging in domestic propaganda. Every T.V. shrink such as Oprah or Dr. Phil will tell you; stick around long enough and that kind of job will drive you into a deep pit of despair. 

I hope by now you get my point; that I've only got your best interest at heart. You can stay on Capitol Hill and be a potentate for a Republican cabal that not only seeks to dominate our government, but enslave their subjects by erasing science from school books while reaping monetary windfalls from every tragedy that befalls this once great nation. But my only question is why? Is it the money or is someone blackmailing you?

We all know you can't turn back time, Tony, but maybe if they legalize full stem-cell research, you can be everybody's clean cut, best friend again. Just stop participating in the madness. Just say no. Stop being a witness to the corruption, deceit and criminal negligence and maybe, just maybe, one of these days you'll find that happy person you used to be. That certainly would be a lot better than your alternative.

Your friend,

Volt Penn

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Have Penn they'll listen. Volt Penn writes speeches for Progressive Populists and reasoned arguments for those on the left of center. He has also written speeches for anybody who has read his work. You can reach Volt Penn through his artist friend, b.b.kemp, at bbkemp@bbkemp.com

Volt/Electra Penn copyright 2007

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