Forgiveness is in the Heir

A Literary Article

For those of you still writing in the early 21st century who fear overly harsh criticisms of your works, or perhaps that rarest of happenings, the disapproval of the wealthy and powerful, worry not. The trendy hook was set long ago by word-smiths long vanished, those who knew how to exploit mass readership before literature came into vogue. In fact,

the cover up is so vast and seemingly innocent that I often wonder why authors do not spew their blatant commentaries more frequently than they do. Believe me, there is no need for mild, docile, inoffensive storytelling, or couched journalism, not even poetry stuffed with hidden, obtuse meanings. The fix is in.

Consider the credit card industry. You can be a street person for all they care, bankrupt several times or in jail for fraud. One might achieve the heights as the greatest of thieves or merely a caught embezzler. Perhaps the resume includes robbing a bank, murdering a lawyer, spraying a bevy of Wall Street executives with machine gun bullets

and pissing on their bodies. Worse, of course, is losing a Presidential election. Prospective cardholders can slink to the bottom as a pedophile priest, sodomite, drunk, prostitute or transvestite. High dudgeon gold card nominees would be movie producers with private Passion, hoping to exploit an unsuspecting public of their money in order to view vicious gore and incredible scenarios as history. It doesn't matter, so long as you once earned a dollar legitimately when you were a child hawking lemonade on a neighborhood street or shined shoes. Sooner or later, MasterCard, Visa, American Express or the other lesser travesties will find and offer you their personal salvation to financial purchasing happiness and ruin.

Then there are parole boards, variable in some states, but all equally determined to offer freedom and exoneration to the perpetrators of the most horrific crimes so long as one is "rehabilitated" and spent quality, "good" time behind bars. You can rape and murder a cheerleader or be a spider lady and poison a dozen husbands. It doesn't matter. The fix

is solid because bleeding hearts outweigh those crying for closure and vengeance. The uncouth will set you free. Unless you are poor and have no funds, that is. Not to worry. Janet and Michael Jackson, Robert Blake, Martha Stewart and all the other rich people are soon to join OJ on a private beach somewhere, simply by lying that they are sorry for their

mis-whatevers. Of course, there is no justice system any more, not since the Supreme Court was purchased. The only punishment for the treasure finders is a slap on the wrist, and the slapper must be careful not to break a fingernail or suffer the wrath of Dubya Zeus.

There are whole industries of morally corrupt people enforced by "rules" that prevent them from telling the cops about your illicit actions. Doctors will absolutely not confide your sexual foibles to anyone, assuming you have survived them. Lawyers will risk jail rather than expose a client's privileged information when you admit your most dastardly deeds. Journalists are the same, willing to suffer incarceration rather than reveal a source of the most disgusting revelations imaginable.

Insurance companies are also very interested in taking your money again, even if you have caused a hundred car accidents, burned down your house or company and been caught doing so. Their key requirement is money, so that those who refuse to work for it can still obtain it easily and thereby endorse eternal deception and dishonesty.

And let's not forget the forgiveness of the Catholic Church confessional, bolstered so well by today's political Right. You can do anything . . . absolutely anything, and walk out of that box feeling perfectly free to commit more and greater atrocities, so long as you

express regret and say the requisite rote lines of remission. That priest will gladly protect your sins from exposure with his life, even if you are a brother priest and have raped all the children in the parish or seduced every man's wife. No Protestant Reformation is on the horizon in America. Medieval thinking, so long as it is sponsored by Rome, and not the non-western cultures, is perfectly acceptable.

No. The only ones who do not forgive are spouses, family, friends, Islam and your personal bank, the latter for all time.

So why be timid? Why express your thoughts weakly or with limpid, inelegant phrases? Indeed, when travesties are the norm, it should be perfectly obvious to all writers that we have finally reached that plateau envisioned by the crafters of the First Amendment in their lofty exuberance. Freedom of Speech, as redefined by the Patriot Act, is not the same for everyone. Money is where that ill-defined distinction is made. Therefore, go thee out and ink what you will, providing you have a stash or a stolen identity.

W. A. Rieser



Forgiveness is in the Heir A Literary Article

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	For those of you still writing in the early 21st century who fear overly harsh criticisms of your works, or perhaps that rarest of happenings, the disapproval of the wealthy and powerful, worry not. The trendy hook was set long ago by word-smiths long vanished, those who knew how to exploit mass readership before literature came into vogue. In fact, the cover up is so vast and seemingly innocent that I often wonder why authors do not spew their blatant commentaries more frequently than they do. Believe me, there is no need for mild, docile, inoffensive storytelling, or couched journalism, not even poetry stuffed with hidden, obtuse meanings. The fix is in. Consider the credit card industry. You can be a street person for all they care, bankrupt several times or in jail for fraud. One might achieve the heights as the greatest of thieves or merely a caught embezzler. Perhaps the resume includes robbing a bank, murdering a lawyer, spraying a bevy of Wall Street executives with machine gun bullets and pissing on their bodies. Worse, of course, is losing a Presidential election. Prospective cardholders can slink to the bottom as a pedophile priest, sodomite, drunk, prostitute or transvestite. High dudgeon gold card nominees would be movie producers with private Passion, hoping to exploit an unsuspecting public of their money in order to view vicious gore and incredible scenarios as history. It doesn't matter, so long as you once earned a dollar legitimately when you were a child hawking lemonade on a neighborhood street or shined shoes. Sooner or later, MasterCard, Visa, American Express or the other lesser travesties will find and offer you their personal salvation to financial purchasing happiness and ruin. Then there are parole boards, variable in some states, but all equally determined to offer freedom and exoneration to the perpetrators of the most horrific crimes so long as one is "rehabilitated" and spent quality, "good" time behind bars. You can rape and murder a cheerleader or be a spider lady and poison a dozen husbands. It doesn't matter. The fix is solid because bleeding hearts outweigh those crying for closure and vengeance. The uncouth will set you free. Unless you are poor and have no funds, that is. Not to worry. Janet and Michael Jackson, Robert Blake, Martha Stewart and all the other rich people are soon to join OJ on a private beach somewhere, simply by lying that they are sorry for their mis-whatevers. Of course, there is no justice system any more, not since the Supreme Court was purchased. The only punishment for the treasure finders is a slap on the wrist, and the slapper must be careful not to break a fingernail or suffer the wrath of Dubya Zeus. There are whole industries of morally corrupt people enforced by "rules" that prevent them from telling the cops about your illicit actions. Doctors will absolutely not confide your sexual foibles to anyone, assuming you have survived them. Lawyers will risk jail rather than expose a client's privileged information when you admit your most dastardly deeds. Journalists are the same, willing to suffer incarceration rather than reveal a source of the most disgusting revelations imaginable. Insurance companies are also very interested in taking your money again, even if you have caused a hundred car accidents, burned down your house or company and been caught doing so. Their key requirement is money, so that those who refuse to work for it can still obtain it easily and thereby endorse eternal deception and dishonesty. And let's not forget the forgiveness of the Catholic Church confessional, bolstered so well by today's political Right. You can do anything . . . absolutely anything, and walk out of that box feeling perfectly free to commit more and greater atrocities, so long as you express regret and say the requisite rote lines of remission. That priest will gladly protect your sins from exposure with his life, even if you are a brother priest and have raped all the children in the parish or seduced every man's wife. No Protestant Reformation is on the horizon in America. Medieval thinking, so long as it is sponsored by Rome, and not the non-western cultures, is perfectly acceptable. No. The only ones who do not forgive are spouses, family, friends, Islam and your personal bank, the latter for all time. So why be timid? Why express your thoughts weakly or with limpid, inelegant phrases? Indeed, when travesties are the norm, it should be perfectly obvious to all writers that we have finally reached that plateau envisioned by the crafters of the First Amendment in their lofty exuberance. Freedom of Speech, as redefined by the Patriot Act, is not the same for everyone. Money is where that ill-defined distinction is made. Therefore, go thee out and ink what you will, providing you have a stash or a stolen identity. W. A. Rieser