Hillary's Ghost
I am a small businessman, and I live or die on the basis of real deals and product development that is incredibly risky. For example, this year, I am very proud to have recruited a kid from Apple Computer, and I am likely going to make it to market first with a product that will play in a big market. I have successfully beaten some big dogs. Small business is a gloves-off enterprise, and I am a survivor. I live or die on the basis of my ability to win in both dealmaking and product development. I've successfully sold computer hardware, even when my own supplier put up a website that undercut my prices right as my product line was rolling out. We've done alot over the years, but we're not this giant company and we've got room for improvement, and hopefully everyone will soon be able to see what I've been cooking for the past year, year and a half and you'll like it.
Speaking from the perspective of a small businessman, I feel there is a parallel to statesmen. What we do is human, in nature. We go to work, we work hard, but at the end of the day there can be someone who works harder, does more, and we end up not unlike the gold miners in that excellent documentary about Sebastião Salgado - "Salt of the Earth". I strongly recommend this documentary, if only for the first five minutes.
If you watch, you will see at first, still photographs of Men descending into the gold mine, covered in dirt. The photography is vivid, memorable. I have included some here, in this post. At first it looks as if they are all slaves. But they are not. Because each area of this vast gold mine, in Brazil - is an area that they can mine themselves, and they descend down these pitches so steep you can only run down them. They climb back up ladders with a bag full of earth, and pan at the top of the gold mine.
And it does look like they are all slaves. But each man can go to a different section of the mine - and if that section of the mine has hit a vein of gold, then he may have as much as a kilo of gold in his sack when he comes back up.
He either has dirt, in the sack, or gold.
Perhaps statecraft, and small business are akin to that prospect; as a leader of a small business, my ability to pay my men , and keep digging for gold - is the key aspect of my venture. Like a man's own strength, until that moment when one day, we will come up with a kilo of Gold. And we will.
One of my political heroes (and I guess this gives away my truly independent streak) is Otto Von Bismarck. He was Chancellor of Germany, and singularly responsible for the Unification of Germany. My ancestors came through Germany, on the way to America, and we were likely very drunk at the time, so perhaps there's a genetic memory of him within us - I tend to remember things when I'm drunk as well as sober.
Bismarck was famous for his saying that a statesman is one who can listen for the footsteps of God, and swing themselves up by the hem when he walked past.
And of course, he was also known for "Laws and sausages are two things better seen not being made".
So it's with a little concern that I write next, what I feel I must write - to help put the context of a recent town hall into place. Because I saw one person on stage hearing those footsteps, or at least, I imagine so.
Perhaps you know it. It was a strange moment, a man who had been on death row - asked Hillary Rodham if she would still support the death penalty even as he, and 150 other men like him - were innocent and sent to their death.
And if you watched, you saw something in her crush - and make a sound of broken glass. I feel, and this is me speaking not as an activist, but as a small businessman who has to live and die on the basis of customer , and partner interactions - that on that night, Hillary Rodham Clinton - had a flashback. I believe she saw the ghost of Vince Foster.
And this must be stated very carefully, because there is great concern here. I was very, very young when Vince Foster was murdered. But I know Hillary loved him. And I felt her loss at that moment. I felt her humanity. Because it shone through; Hillary remembered a man who was completely innocent, and that he had lost his life. I know that many believe Vince Foster took his own life, but even as a very young activist, and a graduate student - I remember clearly the suspicion in my mind that this was no suicide. I remember the day he died, I started digging into the facts of his death. As it happened, I had a bit of time, and I was then as now a fairly curious person - and I found evidence that convinced me he was shot in the head and that it was made to look like a suicide. Vince Foster was using his own personal swiss bank account, just as Hillary was using her own personal mail server. When he was found dead, this man who had been a prominent member of the Clinton Democrat Administration, had his death investigated by the United States Park Police. His suicide note , found torn up in his briefcase, mentioned Hillary Clinton by name. I never believed it to have been a suicide note.
I believe he was an innocent man, and that he was killed.
At the moment in the town hall when a good African American man who had escaped death row, a man named Ricky Jackson, who stood before Hillary Rodham Clinton - after having served 39 years for a crime he did not commit - an Ohio man who stood free when over 150 others had died by the state's hand - I feel she heard the words of another man who said that the government should never be in the business of murdering its own citizens.
At that moment, I felt, the footsteps were walking away from statecraft, and in her hesitation, and her thought -when at last she allowed her heart to speak to her - even if she did not speak it to the rest of the crowd.
I feel that, and I could be wrong on this - on March 13, 2016, to herself, and herself alone - Hillary Rodham Clinton made the decision to end her political career. She may have some role to play in future administrations, but I think she finally saw the human cost, and she heard the footsteps, and she decided , to herself, that it was all too much.
And if she did, then I respect her for that. If she did not, that's ok. I could be wrong. But for me , at least, as someone who basically has to live by my guts - there was no mistaking the look in her eye. She saw the ghost of Vince Foster.
I do not write this to disparage her or accuse her husband of Murder. I simply see a connection between her, and her old friend - all human life is precious. Every life matters. No life is meaningless.
I know she knows every point of the letter that Vince Foster was writing. I know she agrees with him. I wonder if she knows who tore it all up. I think she does know who tore up that letter.
Speaking from the perspective of a small businessman, I feel there is a parallel to statesmen. What we do is human, in nature. We go to work, we work hard, but at the end of the day there can be someone who works harder, does more, and we end up not unlike the gold miners in that excellent documentary about Sebastião Salgado - "Salt of the Earth". I strongly recommend this documentary, if only for the first five minutes.
If you watch, you will see at first, still photographs of Men descending into the gold mine, covered in dirt. The photography is vivid, memorable. I have included some here, in this post. At first it looks as if they are all slaves. But they are not. Because each area of this vast gold mine, in Brazil - is an area that they can mine themselves, and they descend down these pitches so steep you can only run down them. They climb back up ladders with a bag full of earth, and pan at the top of the gold mine.
And it does look like they are all slaves. But each man can go to a different section of the mine - and if that section of the mine has hit a vein of gold, then he may have as much as a kilo of gold in his sack when he comes back up.
He either has dirt, in the sack, or gold.
Perhaps statecraft, and small business are akin to that prospect; as a leader of a small business, my ability to pay my men , and keep digging for gold - is the key aspect of my venture. Like a man's own strength, until that moment when one day, we will come up with a kilo of Gold. And we will.
One of my political heroes (and I guess this gives away my truly independent streak) is Otto Von Bismarck. He was Chancellor of Germany, and singularly responsible for the Unification of Germany. My ancestors came through Germany, on the way to America, and we were likely very drunk at the time, so perhaps there's a genetic memory of him within us - I tend to remember things when I'm drunk as well as sober.
Bismarck was famous for his saying that a statesman is one who can listen for the footsteps of God, and swing themselves up by the hem when he walked past.
And of course, he was also known for "Laws and sausages are two things better seen not being made".
So it's with a little concern that I write next, what I feel I must write - to help put the context of a recent town hall into place. Because I saw one person on stage hearing those footsteps, or at least, I imagine so.
Perhaps you know it. It was a strange moment, a man who had been on death row - asked Hillary Rodham if she would still support the death penalty even as he, and 150 other men like him - were innocent and sent to their death.
And if you watched, you saw something in her crush - and make a sound of broken glass. I feel, and this is me speaking not as an activist, but as a small businessman who has to live and die on the basis of customer , and partner interactions - that on that night, Hillary Rodham Clinton - had a flashback. I believe she saw the ghost of Vince Foster.
And this must be stated very carefully, because there is great concern here. I was very, very young when Vince Foster was murdered. But I know Hillary loved him. And I felt her loss at that moment. I felt her humanity. Because it shone through; Hillary remembered a man who was completely innocent, and that he had lost his life. I know that many believe Vince Foster took his own life, but even as a very young activist, and a graduate student - I remember clearly the suspicion in my mind that this was no suicide. I remember the day he died, I started digging into the facts of his death. As it happened, I had a bit of time, and I was then as now a fairly curious person - and I found evidence that convinced me he was shot in the head and that it was made to look like a suicide. Vince Foster was using his own personal swiss bank account, just as Hillary was using her own personal mail server. When he was found dead, this man who had been a prominent member of the Clinton Democrat Administration, had his death investigated by the United States Park Police. His suicide note , found torn up in his briefcase, mentioned Hillary Clinton by name. I never believed it to have been a suicide note.
I believe he was an innocent man, and that he was killed.
At the moment in the town hall when a good African American man who had escaped death row, a man named Ricky Jackson, who stood before Hillary Rodham Clinton - after having served 39 years for a crime he did not commit - an Ohio man who stood free when over 150 others had died by the state's hand - I feel she heard the words of another man who said that the government should never be in the business of murdering its own citizens.
At that moment, I felt, the footsteps were walking away from statecraft, and in her hesitation, and her thought -when at last she allowed her heart to speak to her - even if she did not speak it to the rest of the crowd.
I feel that, and I could be wrong on this - on March 13, 2016, to herself, and herself alone - Hillary Rodham Clinton made the decision to end her political career. She may have some role to play in future administrations, but I think she finally saw the human cost, and she heard the footsteps, and she decided , to herself, that it was all too much.
And if she did, then I respect her for that. If she did not, that's ok. I could be wrong. But for me , at least, as someone who basically has to live by my guts - there was no mistaking the look in her eye. She saw the ghost of Vince Foster.
I do not write this to disparage her or accuse her husband of Murder. I simply see a connection between her, and her old friend - all human life is precious. Every life matters. No life is meaningless.
I know she knows every point of the letter that Vince Foster was writing. I know she agrees with him. I wonder if she knows who tore it all up. I think she does know who tore up that letter.
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