Poem: A Question for the Candidate

What used to bear the name of university,
Is now no more than an employee factory,
Where students do not ponder truth and mystery,
But train instead to serve the world economy,
And lick the boots of those who climb the money tree.
They lick the boots and climb the greasy money tree.

What reason for our nation’s great hegemony?
Is it that we can buy and sell so easily,
With power gained from overwhelming G.N.P?
Or was it due to our fathers’ ability,
To separate illusion from reality?
They separated daydreams from reality.

So tell us what he offers as a legacy?
He lays claim to a certain versatility,
But has no Latin, Greek, or ancient history
To turn away the charge of illiteracy;
To prove him worthy of our meritocracy.
Worthy to lead our honored meritocracy.

Written in response to the disturbing trend of hiring politicians to be university presidents, specifically John Delaney of the University of North Florida. Delaney has turned out to be a great president, at least as far as bringing in the funds to expand university programs. But it has been a common practice to use our state universities across the country as political graveyards. What qualities do we want in a university president, and in what direction should higher education proceed? These are questions worth considering, I thought, hence this poem.

About Louis William Rose

“I am an advocate for Liberty. What I do for Liberty I do not do for profit or fame. I seek no office other than the office of parliamentarian, and no reward other than for myself and my fellow men and women to live in a free country.” Louis William Rose is a lifelong student of parliamentary procedure and political process. He has served as parliamentarian for various organizations. A political philosopher, poet, singer, and writer, his articles have been published on-line and in pro-liberty papers in Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, and Montana. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of North Florida, graduating summa cum laude in 2004, with an additional two years of graduate work in political philosophy. Mr. Rose is an outspoken supporter of the basic rights of man, especially freedom of speech, association, religion, individual rights to personal defense and property, and of republican, constitutional forms of government. He is married to the lovely Jamy Sue Rose, an award winning nature photographer and a Florida Master Naturalist and guide. He has two sons, Edward, a hydroponic farmer in the panhandle of Florida, and Alexander, a successful real estate developer.
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