Smart - the poem

My dad was a WWII Vet. On this Veterans Day I came across a poem from cartoonist Shel Silverstein whose work appeared in copies of the Pacific military newspaper Stars and Stripes that my dad brought home from the war.

As I read the poem, I formulated a simple question for future readers. Of the father and son in the poem, if one went to public school and the other went to private school, which went to which?

Smart

by Shell Silverstein

My dad gave me one dollar bill
‘Cause I’m his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
‘Cause two is more than one!
And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes—I guess he don’t know
That three is more than two!
Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just ‘cause he can’t see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!
And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
And the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!
And then I went and showed my dad,
And he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head—
Too proud of me to speak!

Thoughts on voting

As Americans await the results of today's historic presidential election, I'm reminded of a poem written by libertarian educator Sy Leon. I never met Sy, who died in 2007, but I was influenced by his writings, including his book None of the Above which makes the case for letting us vote for NOTA, which would leave an office empty if it won over the human candidates on the ballot.

Sy founded an apparently short-lived organization, The League of Non-Voters, and penned a poem which I'll never forget. It could have different meanings to different people, but everyone might gain some insight into our election process by thinking about it today. Here it is:

How could the man have done the deed,
I’m sure he never willed it.
He stepped into the voting booth,
and loving freedom, killed it.