File puptcrit/puptcrit.0901, message 393


From: "Alan Cook" <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:45:52 GMT
Subject: [Puptcrit] The price of Puppet Guild dues versus the price of shoes


Charles Taylor wrote that a puppet guild "member said she wouldn't be able to afford to pay for her son's shoes if we increased the dues."

One of the major causes for puppet guild dues increases has been rising postage rates for newsletters and printing and general cost of everything. So basically dues have always been kept as low as possible.

Shoes are generally considered a basic necessity in good times (remember them?) and bad..

During the years of the Great Depression, a man bought a ventriloquist dummy as a means for income. That dummy has been in my collection for 20 years or more.

During the Great Depression that man  bought a new pair of shoes for a young son.

The son got sick & died.

His mother wanted to bury the boy with his new shoes. This seemed an unneeded extravagance to the father, who put the shoes on the vent dummy, where they are to this very day. 

Years passed, then many more years passed. The family split up, leaving the man with very little, which is why he sold me the dummy figure.

There are echoes with the  current Bush-Cheney Recession (which DID happen in their 8-year watch), made possible in large part by the politicking by James Dobson, his Focus on the Family, and the Religious Right--- how many of their supporters who made this mess possible, are wondering how to keep their homes, jobs or pay for new shoes?

Self-righteousness had a hidden cost.

ALAN COOK

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