The help asked for help for tuition for

her honor roll twins to go to college – a black

school up in some backwater, southern town.

 

So she built up the courage to ask massa and

missa just at the end of breakfast while they

were finishing up reading the morning

 

paper, him the sports, her the editorial. Massa

heard the word loan, jumped to his feet, kissed

his blond haired wife goodbye and left.

 

Missa condescendingly listened and told the

help that she needed to show her independence –

independence she actually said – by earning

 

the money, being self-sufficient and finding

dignity in self-determination.  She said all that

to the help who quietly slipped back into

 

the kitchen. Years but only a motion picture day

later, a candidate for president of the United States

of America, a child of privilege from a

 

northern state, said virtually the same thing,

as strategy to kick-start the economy, to those

who needed a low-interest loan with

 

determination to repay.  Learn self-reliance,

and the dignity of self-determination as he,

the self-made man, had.  The words were

 

uttered with the same scorn heard in the

inflection of missa back in the day, but

the words came out muffled and

 

hardly understandable to those who

heard because of the silver spoon

still in his mouth.