Yertle the Turtle and Cheeseheads

[TayTay]

The great tale, by the great American liberal writer, Dr. Seuss begins:

On the far-away island of Sala-ma-Sond,
Yertle the Turtle was king of the pond.

Dr. Seuss' great classic about the abuse of power is an apt tale to be told right now. It talks of Yertle who presided over a happy pond of turtles. It was a happy pond that is, until Yertle decided that he needed to be higher and be able to see farther than anyone else. So he stood on the backs of other turtles and was ruler of all that he saw:

And all through the morning, he sat up there high
Saying over and over, “A great king am I!”
Until ‘long about noon. Then he heard a faint sigh.
“What’s that?” snapped the king,and he looked down the stack.
And he saw, at the bottom, a turtle named Mack.
Just a part of his throne. And this plain little turtle
Looked up and he said, “Beg your pardon, King Yertle.
I’ve pains in my back and my shoulders and knees.
How long must we stand here, Your Majesty, please?”

“SILENCE!” the King of the Turtles barked back.
“I’m king, and you’re only a turtle named Mack.”

“You stay in your place while I sit here and rule.
I’m the king of a cow! And I’m the king of a mule!

Yertle orders more turtles to come and build a higher and higher throne. Again, some small little voice, from the bottom of the pile, complains:

Then again, from below, in the great heavy stack,
Came a groan from that plain little turtle named Mack.
“Your Majesty, please… I don’t like to complain,
But down here below, we are feeling great pain.
I know, up on top you are seeing great sights,
But down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights.
We turtles can’t stand it. Our shells will all crack!
Besides, we need food. We are starving!” groaned Mack.

“You hush up your mouth!” howled the mighty King Yertle.
“You’ve no right to talk to the world’s highest turtle.
I rule from the clouds! Over land! Over sea!
There’s nothing, no, NOTHING, that’s higher than me!”

Eventually Yertle notices that the moon is still yet higher than he and he orders thousands of turtles to stand on their backs and elevate him, no matter the cost.

But, as Yertle, the Turtle King, lifted his hand
And started to order and give the command,
That plain little turtle below in the stack,
That plain little turtle whose name was just Mack,
Decided he’d taken enough. And he had.
And that plain little lad got a bit mad.
And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing.
He burped!
And his burp shook the throne of the king!

And Yertle the Turtle, the king of the trees,
The king of the air and the birds and the bees,
The king of a house and a cow and a mule…
Well, that was the end of the Turtle King’s rule!
For Yertle, the King of all Sala-ma-Sond,
Fell off his high throne and fell Plunk! in the pond!

Anyway, to all the "Mack's" in Wisconsin right now, all the turtles at the bottom of the pack who have decided they've taken enough (and they have) well, thanks! Thanks for reminding your fellow Americans how it's done. It's not a complicated thing to explain, Dr. Suess did it in two stanzas:

"I know, up on top you are seeing great sights,
But down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights"

(My heartfelt thanks to Dr. Seuss, American genius and self-proclaimed radical. You can see an awesome video of the tale of Yertle the Turtle set to a gret gospel tune on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noh1EdnjJpM )

Thanks Cheeseheads! You rock! (Oh yeah, and a person's still a person, no matter how small. Isn't that the core issue of all progressive/liberal stands? A Person's a person, no matter how small and they have rights too!)