The sad situation surrounding this campaign for president we are having got me to thinking last week about the comedian Will Rogers. I wonder what Will would have said?
I found some things written about Mr. Rogers in the Forward to a book about him that might be helpful today.
Finally, there was no malice in his humor. He never criticized a man who was down. He was neither a Republican nor a Democrat. He said he was always with the “outs” and against the “ins.” At the start of the great depression Will Rogers ceased all criticism of Presidents.
He had a sharp wit, but he used it kindly. In his daily newspaper column read in over 400 papers he took cracks at capital and labor, bankers and farmers, but through it all was a thread of forgiveness and national unity. The insulting personal humor of today was quite foreign to Will Rogers.
Will Rogers lived in a time now long past, when more people lived in the country than the city. I think his point of view is best summed up in a remark he once made to an audience in New York City. “They call me a rube and a hick, but I’d a lot rather be the man who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than the man that sold it.”
That was Will Rogers.
So today, if we could ask him how do think Mr. Trump would answer the question about selling or buying the Brooklyn Bridge?
Lord, today just a simple prayer. Please send us a modern day Will Rogers cause we need something to laugh about!
I’m Steve Sauder.
