Easy Sunday: Trump's Nobel medal.

Trump accepted the medal that accompanies the Nobel Peace Prize, a prize awarded to someone else.

Even Greg Gutfeld on Fox had to play it for laughs.  Displaying someone else's diploma! Wearing someone else's Eagle Scout badge! Ha-ha!

I stay in touch with some of my high school, junior high, and elementary school friends. I asked them if they had saved any old awards that they could offer Trump in exchange for not blowing up NATO.

I offered this old debate trophy. DeVere Taylor, my beloved former debate coach at Medford High School, pulled it out of the school's display case when they closed the school building. He brought it to me and I stored it. I would happily offer it to Trump in exchange for ending his trade wars.

My best friend in junior high and high school, Jon Stong, was a much better debater than I was, and I was lucky to have him as a debate partner. He said he did not have a debate trophy of his own -- and he would thoroughly deserve it if I gave it to him. He declined. He has his own tokens, varsity letters from both Hedrick Junior High and Medford High School. Jon was early to mature and get his height. He was probably a full foot taller than I was in the eighth grade. He played basketball, ran track, and played the drums in the school band. He is willing to make a deal with Trump.

Jon ended up marrying the girl I first knew as Patti Clark at Roosevelt Elementary School, a pretty, peppy, and popular girl in third grade, and still. She matured into a woman who became known as Patricia, having outgrown "Patti." She didn't save anything from our Roosevelt Rough Riders days, but she does have this recognition plaque. It has a shiny gold color, giving it good trade value when dealing with Trump. I'll bet she would give it up in exchange for peace in the North Atlantic.  

Stan Horton was a Rough Rider, too. He saved multiple letters from Roosevelt, Hedrick Junior High, and Medford High, awarded for his work as team manager for multiple sports. That role led to sports reporting, calling in box scores that got published in the local newspaper, which was a cool achievement for a high school freshman. That early start led to his long career in journalism. 

Another two high school classmates, Sheryl Gerety and Bruce Winterhalder, married each other. Sheryl kept her Blue Bird and Camp Fire merit badges and displays them on this costume. She would trade them for world peace.

Bruce saved his old scouting merit badges, a pin from a Project Prometheus summer enrichment program, and, on the far right of the second photo, a Red Cross 11-gallon pin, recognizing his blood donations.

My intention in this Easy Sunday post is to be lighthearted. Look at all the stuff we keep! Look at how we hang onto these symbols of merit. We may have moved houses a dozen or more times since childhood, but we cannot quite bear to throw them away. We would willingly join Maria Corina Machado in offering them to Trump to feed his need for recognition, if we got better government in return.

There is a serious point, too. I think Trump looks ridiculous doing anything with the Nobel medal other than returning it to Machado and praising her work. He could have looked generous. He could have shown that he respected the work of other people. He could have looked big, in the character sense. It was an opportunity for grace. 

Couldn't a single aide have gotten through to him and told him what the situation required?  Apparently not.

I look at Bruce's 11-gallon pin with particular admiration and respect. In what world would someone else buy or borrow that pin and stand for photos smiling for the camera while wearing it? We would understand that for what it is: stolen honor. We don't admire or respect that kind of imposter. Quite the opposite.

Even Gutfeld laughs at the absurdity of it.

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