Ανθρωπος χωρίς Ιστορία
Του Κωνσταντίνου Μάγνη
Αγαπητέ,
επειδή ικανή μερίδα της τοπικής κοινής γνώμης διάκειται από περιέργεια για την επιλογή μου να μην είμαι υποψήφιος βουλευτής ούτε και σε αυτές τις εκλογές, οφείλω να δώσω τις ακόλουθες εξηγήσεις.
Δεν είμαι υποψήφιος, λοιπόν, διότι:
1. Δεν μου το ζήτησε κανείς…
2. Δεν νομίζω ότι κάνω για το αξίωμα του βουλευτή…
3. Δεν νομίζω ότι θα εκλεγόμουν…
4. Δεν έχω λεφτά…
5. …
6. Ντρέπομαι να μπαίνω στα καφενεία και να διακόπτω το τάβλι των άλλων. Το πολύ να σταθώ από πάνω τους και να δω την παρτίδα. Αλλά αν παίζουν σκάκι; Πάει η περιοδεία. Θα νυχτωθούμε και τότε είναι που θα χαθούμε στην επιστροφή…
Δεν στενοχωριέμαι. Δεν είμαστε όλοι ικανοί να αφήσουμε εποχή…
Μετά τιμής
Κ. Αγραφίδης
αποφλοιωτής κουκουναριών
www.pelop.gr Άνθρωπος χωρίς Ιστορία
The sin of pride
The speech Mario Cuomo delivered at the Democratic convention in San Francisco in 1984 was the best of his career… Even then, however, an interesting subtext seemed to be playing through Mr Cuomo’s mind. Far from basking in the applause, he appeared to check himself each time he provoked it, as if, like the good Catholic he was, he had to urge himself to humility. Let this not be an occasion of sin. When the speech was over he flew straight home to Albany, and slept in his own bed…
He was governor of New York state, holding the office for three terms, and in 1987-88 and 1991-92 was the man many Democrats wanted as president. On both occasions, he disappointed them. In 1988 he let his name float about, was plainly tempted, but would not (as a keen ex-baseball player) step up to the plate when Gary Hart’s campaign imploded. In 1991, after months of speculation, he waited until 90 minutes before the filing deadline for the New Hampshire primary, keeping two aircraft ready on the tarmac, before announcing that he really had to stay in Albany to push the state budget through.
He had to wrestle, too, with his passion for politics. This was work he excelled at, weaving networks, building alliances, finding compromises, working 14-hour days in Albany. But it also stained the soul. A grubby, ill-tempered campaign in 1977 for mayor of New York City, which he had not wanted to join and which he lost, gave him another reason to evade the most glittering political temptations later. He did not want to do this “ugly business” on a national scale. Nor did he want to start on something he was not committed to.
There was no great incentive, then, to move higher. And perhaps the office of governor of New York was high enough for one lifetime. It already marked an extraordinary rise for a boy born in Queens, behind a shop, to immigrants from Italy who spoke no English; for the son of a grocer in a stained overall who saved crusts for those even needier than he was… His ideal America was just this, a bickering, diverse family in which each member nonetheless worked for the enterprise and all were in it together; and where almost no one, certainly not he, so indulged the sin of pride as to think themselves worthy of the very highest place.
www.economist.com The sin of pride
Aποτυχία
Του Ανδρέα Αθ. Λάζαρη
Δεν έχω φόβο πια κανέναν
Βλέπω πως απέτυχα
Δίχως αναστολή
παρέδωσα τον οπλισμό,
όπως ο Αχιλλέας,
γνωρίζοντας πως πρόκειται
άλλος να με διαδεχθεί.
«Του Έρωτα και του Αχερο(ν)τα», Εκδόσεις Πολύεδρο