“Who cares?” says the president when asked how future historians will judge him. I feel that an extravagant party during wartime is, to say the least, inappropriate.

I think it’s just swell that our leader will not charge admission to soldiers attending his $40 million inaugural bash. Bush needs soldiers as stage props to convince us that patriotism and compassion, rather than avarice, are the impetus behind his administration.

Marcus Aurelius wrote that peasants, after praying for a good harvest, should also cultivate their fields. Bush, a greedy peasant if there ever was one, seems to be praying for the return of a Christ who will shove camels through the eyes of needles and turn polluted water into vintage wine. I don’t find that scenario likely.

Needless to say, I don’t think much of the president’s plan to divert Social Security money to investment in corrupt companies that pay their CEOs 500 times what they pay their workers. Consider that the Walton family is worth $90 billion, and that most of their products are made in China, where the average factory worker earns something like 50 cents per hour and the Bible is outlawed. That inequity is similar to what existed just prior to the fall of Rome.

Of course, for my earlier paragraph to have any meaning, one must have read the passage in the Gospel that states “Take no more than your share.”

Where is Charlemagne when we need him? I hope the Dark Ages end soon.

William J. Boucher, Auburn