Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Countries and Their Vulgarians
Assignments, Plum and No
When you got Paris or London or Prague or Tokyo,
as examples, the inevitable vulgarians at State
asked "Who'd you blow?"
But my assignment: Wyruskikan. “So who did you
really really piss off?”
It was a toilet. And so dangerous that hazard pay
was quadrupled.
My job was to mix in with the natives, and they
proved a sad and fatalistic lot.
Bodies were carted away wholesale in the
capital daily. Chicago plus New York times ten.
Wyruskikians took no precautions. Just shrugged.
In fact, many were shot, or exploded, while
shrugging.
I wondered if their religion gave then solace
in all this horror.
They just laughed. "Which one?" About fifty, and
they each changed faiths periodically. There existed
a state religion which all, of course, ignored.
I...shouldn’t give the impression that all shrugged.
Some cringed.
Like here, they had constitutional guarantees
and freedoms. In conversations with me they
felt ours as much of a joke.
I, of course, told them we were a work in progress.
They just gave back the slit-throat gesture they
ended most conversations with.
In the hills, rebels organize. The revolution is
imminent until we...well take them out with
mercenaries hired off Craig’s List.
I become CL liason. Told this will insure my future
through future layoffs under Republicans.
Another operative gets rocket launchers online, next
day FedEx delivery. “Paris next!” she brags.
Labels: assignment, Constitution, religion, revolution, State Department
