The First Louse speaks …

My family and I have always been at the head of things.  We have a top down view of the world.  From where we are now, one could say, we have a commanding view of the world.  We are at the center of great happenings, right in the middle of great events, at the head of everyone at the table, where the fate of millions of people rest on words of persuasion — sometimes even whether they live or die. 

All I can say — having hopped back and forth for variety — just about all leaders taste the same:  power hungry, especially once they have tasted power; manipulative, loaded with charm — watch that smile; duplicitous — "trust but verify" as one of them put it so pithily, and so on.  I don't have to give you the list, you know it already.

As far as my family goes, we have been through — how should I put it — thick and thin:  through the lush Afro days of a young firebrand, when we could nest a large extended family, to the sparse crew of an urbane politician, supporting very few of us.  We understand.  The voters don't like too overt black.  But we have hopped around, and my relatives are all over the world — though I hear it's awfully claustrophobic under a turban.

I have to tell you we like our present surroundings — luxury at taxpayer expense is hard to give up.  And the power — it's addictive.  No wonder they want to stay as long as possible.  Some of us will hop on to the next occupant — must have friends and relatives in high places, you know.  It's how the world goes around.  The Super-rich, of course, just buy them — the high places that is.  That's life.

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