My Cardboard Balcony

Grandma Left Me by Belinda Roddie Grandma left me out of her will because I didn't marry the man she wanted me to marry. He looked like Santa Claus, from the beard to a nose so fat and red, it looked like a tomato. Besides, we became good friends, and he said he never could imagine himself being with me as a soulmate. I didn't mind; we were happy that way. And I found someone who made me feel warm and quite special as a spouse, someone who just showed out of the blue as I waited for my train one dull day. So I didn't get some of Grandma's things - I'll gladly exchange them for wedding rings.

As thousands protest, the news focuses on the dozen arrested. As millions are disenfranchised, the stations talk about the "thugs." It does not matter why they are doing this, but how they are doing it. When we tell them they should "change" their "strategy," we speak from a gold pedestal, while they shake their fists at us from the burning sticks below, unable to breathe in the ash.