Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 15, 1994 TAG: 9412220006
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A23 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD COTHREN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Whether 'tis safer to stand firmly and contest my opponents,
risking the slings and arrows of outrageous political fortune,
Or to join arms with a sea of Republicans
And by compromising with them perhaps avoid defeat. To vie, - to risk defeat: -
No more; and by a defeat say we end the thousand natural pleasures
and perks that Presidents are heir to, 'tis a consummation
not lightly to be risked. To vie, - to risk defeat: -
To be defeated! perchance to return to Little Rock:
ay, there's the rub: For in that return to Little Rock,
what fate may come (egads - a job in the real world?), must give me pause:
There's the respect that makes calamity of so long political life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns heaped on this Oval Office,
The Republican's wrongs, the Newt's contumely,
The pangs of despised health-care plans, the Congress's delay,
The insolence of ungrateful supporters, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy voters takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bold stance? Who would burdens bear,
to grunt and sweat under a weary presidency,
But that the ego desires fame and
But the dread of life out of the spotlight, -
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No defeated President (save one) has returned, - puzzles the will,
And makes one equivocate rather than take a stand
which could lead to ills one knows not of?
Thus does uncertainty make me irresolute.
And enterprises of great pith and moment -
socialized health care, gays in the military, great societies! -
With this regard, their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.
Richard Cothren (with apologies to Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, a.k.a. William Shakespeare) is associate professor in the Department of Economics at Virginia Tech.
by CNB