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FeaturesJuly 1, 1999

The Missourian crosses the plains toting his wares and his cattle, As the fare-collector goes through the train he gives notice by the jingling of loose change, The floor-men are laying the floor, the tinners are tinning the roof, the masons are calling for mortar,...

The Missourian crosses the plains toting his wares and his cattle,

As the fare-collector goes through the train he gives notice by the jingling of loose change,

The floor-men are laying the floor, the tinners are tinning the roof, the masons are calling for mortar,

In single file each shouldering his hod pass onward the laborers;

Seasons pursuing each other the indescribable crowd is gather'd, it is the fourth of Seventh-month (what salutes of cannon and small arms!)

-- From "Song of Myself"

Walt Whitman

July 1, 1999

Dear Pat,

We head to the cabin on Castor River this weekend for swimming, watermelon and pyromania. It is a tradition.

DC buys the most dangerous-looking fireworks she can find and I get to light them.

She just returned from going to court in a small town south of here. She'd stopped there to shop a few weeks ago and a policeman spied license tags we weren't aware had expired.

At first he thought DC might also be a car thief but let her go with another ticket for improper registration.

At the license bureau we asked why we hadn't received a notice that our tags were due. We learned that the state considers those notices friendly reminders and hopes you have a good day.

They did sleuth out the problem with our registration. The old Subaru wrecked 2 1/2 years ago and replaced by a Mazda hadn't been killed out of the state's computer. We were given a letter explaining the glitch.

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On her court date, DC paid the $40 fine for having expired tags and waited for her day in court alongside a young man who was cursing the judge for being late.

When the judge saw the letter, he expressed surprise that such a mistake could have been made and found her not guilty of having an improperly registered vehicle. But justice is not free. Going to court to protest her innocence instead of going ahead and paying the fines by mail demanded another $25 in court costs. It's the American way.

Protest is a tradition in DC's family. DC's father is boycotting a store in town because the management doesn't give money back to the community. He lobbies us not to shop there.

A few months ago, he was ticketed for expired tags as well. He hadn't received a notice either. The ineptitude of the state's record keeping is startling.

He sent letters of complaint to his local senators and to the governor. The governor wrote back to say he was sorry. DC's father ran into one of the senators on the street. He was sorry, too.

DC had it written into the minutes of a Historic Preservation Commission meeting that she will chain herself to the historic but tattered Marquette Hotel if anyone tries to tear it down.

Wrote Whitman:

Resist much, obey little,

Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,

Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever afterward resumes its liberty.

Now we consider making it a crime to burn the American flag, a tradition of protest since flags were invented. Flags are symbols, and the burning of a flag is as surely the exercise of free speech as these words before you.

We may find the act repugnant, but this is one of the freedoms men and women have fought and died to protect.

The essence of freedom is allowing people to do what you don't agree with.

DC suspects members of her family may have happened upon a government plot. Neglecting to send out registration notices insures that a certain percentage of us will forget and have to pay fines, she reasons.

I grew up in the '60s. I play along. Machiavelli is fun to suspect, but most often the real culprit is Barney Fife.

Love, Sam

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