Editor:
I have struggled since the election to find some way to express my disgust and frustration that a clown who is a convicted felon could be elected to the presidency of this country … for a second time!!! It is almost beyond comprehension, and yet, there it is. I have been musing as to how I/we could express our displeasure at this horrific and terrifying outcome.
It has come to me. He is a clown. And what do clowns want? They want you to laugh. So I am proposing we do just that. We laugh … up-roaringly. Grand guffaws and hooting hee-haws and chortling chuckles … I propose that we descend on Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20 for the inauguration, and have a laughing protest. Show up in the thousands, tens of thousands. And when he lays his sweaty palm on a made in China bible with his name on it, and begins to mouth his hollow oath to the constitution and the office which he is about to take, what he hears in the distance is a rising crescendo of laughter … a cacophony of hoots and hollers, snickers and sniggles, guffaws and giggles … a tsunami of cachinnation. A sustained chorus of derision and rejection. A public confirmation of the absurdity and embarrassment of the moment.
It seems these laughing protests could be effectively used around the country … outside Mar-A-Lago, perhaps, or on the steps of the Supreme Court. There are so many appropriate locations and targets. I think an appropriate symbol for the cause would be a red clown nose … big shoes and a curly wig optional. In these days of dire consequences and dim outlooks, let’s have a little fun!
Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Cry, and you cry alone.
Ryan Lee, McKinleyville
This article appears in Through Mark Larson’s Lens 2025.
Turkish proverb “When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become king. The palace becomes a circus.”