Beware the Clowns

In the past year, our local hospice taking its cue from the cows in Chicago, the bulls in New York, even the pigs in neighboring Venice decided to raise funds by displaying and auctioning off statues. But as they scrambled for an animal for the campaign, someone had the seemingly felicitous idea of using clowns. Sarasota was once a circus town. So clowns in all sorts of artistic regalia began appearing on downtown street corners. Even as they appeared, the trouble began. They were vandalized: arms were broken off, an MP3 player was stolen, and a couple of visiting Coast Guard guys even kidnapped two, one of which has never been seen again, I think. Finally, they had to install cameras for clown protection in our normally law abiding city.

It seems that the clown is not such a benign figure, after all. The hostility the clowns were apparently evoking in some of my fellow citizens surprised me. My friend Jo explained, as she phrased it, clowns are "evil." Some reflection reminded me that John Wayne Gacy's alter ego was a clown. And "It" in the Stephen King novel by the same name was usually "Pennywise," a clown figure. It was striking, then, to read a quote from a Havana housewife who -on the condition of anonymity- described Chavez: "He looked like a clown, singing on stage."

It's a sentiment I've shared about fifo, having on occasion described him as as a laughable figure. And so he strikes me, as did Chavez making a total horse's hindquarter of himself at the UN calling Bush a "devil" last year. What I wonder is how they ever achieved power. Who are the people that found or find either of these two Chuckies admirable?

Yet the results of their gambols are not to be laughed at. These clowns are truly evil. And as I've said before, perhaps the greatest cruelty of what has befallen Cuba is that it has happened at the hands of a buffoon, as if some vile sentient force was having a laugh at the expense of a whole people.