My Mom Didn't Win the Publisher's Clearing House

My dad was one of the smartest people I ever knew.  He also possessed some of the quirkiest of quirks entirely not commensurate with his educational and professional attainments.

Once, when we were visiting over the Christmas holidays, he and I got to talking about how they were financially positioned for retirement.  Dad was never one to spill all the beans, so to speak, but he let me know that he and my mother would be able to enjoy the retirement they had hoped and planned for.  Then, in kind of a sly aside, he said to me, "Well, it might be a whole lot better than that.  Your mother is a finalist in the Publisher's Clearing House."

He was so sincere and so excited, I hesitated to deliver the bad news.  I, too, had received an envelope from the company, identifying me as a finalist.  So had everyone during that cycle of solicitation from the Publisher's Clearing House.

Gently, I said, "Oh, Dad.  Maybe she will be but that's what all the letters said.  They're trying to get you to enter."

My dad went over to where they kept their mail stacked on the kitchen counter.  Not ready to capitulate, he handed me the envelope.  "There's your mother's name."

"I got one just like it, Dad.  Barbara and JoAnn and Joey (my siblings) probably did, too."

His face fell and he was crushed.  Indeed, he and my mom traveled, spent the winter in Florida, drove a Cadillac, had a bountiful retirement.  But how much better could it have been if she won the Clearinghouse?

I find myself considering that story when I struggle to understand how so many can still believe that the election was fraudulent, especially in light of the events of January 7.  

Today the Minnesota Senate Majority Leader, Paul Gazelka, and the Minnesota House Minority Leader, Kurt Daudt, both refused to..."contradict claims made and perpetuated by President Donald Trump that the election was rigged despite being asked directly by reporters if they thought the election was fair."  

Said Gazelka, "A lot of people feel like it was not a fair election," a concern echoed by Daudt.

According to The Google, over 60 lawsuits to that unfairness effect were filed and lost.  The lawsuits were considered by lawyers and judges, including the Supreme Court, to be frivolous and without merit.

Yet 'a lot of people' still feel like it was not fair.

This is like my dad demanding that my mother actually BE a finalist in the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes because he felt it was not fair that she wasn't.  Or that she deserved to win it because after all the company told her she was a finalist and it was their fault she wasn't and she was very upset.  Right, Senator Gazelka?  Correct, Representative Daudt?  While we're at it, how about you, Senators Cruz and Hawley? 

And that's all I have to say about that.


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