Tag Archives: Inauguration Salute

Ground Level Conditions Presidental Election

Shoe vs. Slipper Salute to Trump’s Inauguration

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Towards the end of George W. Bush’s second term of office, I recollect that he visited Iraq, and during a press conference suddenly found himself ducking a pair of shoes that were hurled his way by a man justifiably outraged at the havoc that Cheney and he had unleashed on his nation. “Iraq has weapons of mass destruction,” we were told, and and millions of us in the United States knew it was a lie, but we could not stop the war. As a final protest, this brave man offered Bush an insult better understood in the Arab world than here.

Such a gesture would seem appropriate for what is about to happen tomorrow, though of course the shoes should not be aimed at him as such, but only close enough to his entourage of wealthy cockroaches that he gets the hint. Given the weather, though, and the protective moat built around his accomplices, I’m sorry to say that throwing one’s shoes at the compass point of his filched election would only be a pathetic, futile gesture, even if 10,000 people were to do it.

Better to stay home, and if you cannot resist keeping your television set turned off, then get your bedroom slippers and practice on your screen. Soft toss lobs, only. This is spring training, after all. Save your arm for when we need to hurl our hiking boots to protest the despoilment of the Republic.