SOME POLITICAL COUNSEL from my friend, Bob Tinsky in Oblong, Illinois...
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    Have you ever compared two people who were very similar and said the difference between them was like Tweedledum and Tweedledee? I recently got to wondering, "Where did those names come from?" I did some research and here is what I discovered.
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    Tweedledum and Tweedledee were characters in the novel written by Lewis Carroll entitled: "Through the Looking Glass". Some people have erroneously referred to them as brothers but actually they were cousins in the story.  You may recall that Disney made Carroll's book into a movie entitled, "Alice in Wonderland." In the movie there were the two little fat men name Tweedledum and Tweedledee.Â
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    Lewis Carroll, however, was the not the originator of this term. In 1725 a poet by the name of John Byron made fun of two quarreling composers, Handel and Bononcini, and said there was little difference between their music since one went "tweedledum" and the other went "tweedledee."Â
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    If you are a fan of Batman you may know that two of the villains in that series were cousins named Deever and Dumfree Tweed. They were also referred to as Tweedledum and Tweedledee.Â
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    The dictionary gives this definition for this expression: "two things or parties that are identical or nearly identical." Another definition is: "Two groups or two people resembling each other so closely that they are practically indistinguishable."
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    Ani Difranco's 1998 album contains a song entitled: "Fuel." In it he asks the question: "And I wonder who's gonna be president, Tweedle Dumb or Tweedle Dumber?"Â
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    I have written all this to reveal my frustration with the choice we have for president this year. I am not sold on either candidate and it seems that our choice is between "Tweedledum" and "Tweedledee." I know there are some differences between the two candidates but I wish there was a stronger contrast between the two. What George Wallace said several years ago is still true: "There is not a dime's worth of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans." Don't get me wrong. I certainly was not in favor of Wallace's segregationist policies and feel he leaned too far to the right to suit me. But there is still some truth to what he said about how little difference there is between the two major parties.
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    As an American I believe it is my patriotic duty to vote. But I sure do wish we had a better choice than between "Tweedledum" and "Tweedledee." You may not agree with me. That's OK. Let's just pray that whoever gets elected will do a good job as leader of the United States and as the leader of the free world.Â

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THANKS for your help, Bob -- now back to making decisions...yeah.
THE WORDWRIGHT