Dispatches for the Colonial Office: That Which was Mandatory is Now Forbidden

Sunday, March 22, 2026

Lawrence Hall

That Which was Mandatory is Now Forbidden

Let no images

Be hung with Caesar’s trophies

-Flavius in Julius Caesar I.i.73-74

Now hidden are the statues of Cesar Chavez

His name, his fame, once celebrated everywhere

Were furtively cleansed in the dark of night

Lest any of his works live after him

He is closeted now in the basement of some museum

Playing poker with Abraham Lincoln and Columbus

While Mother Theresa and Winston Churchill

Exchange Shakespearean bon mots

The famous of the past are irrelevant, you see

Because

No one is as perfect as you and me

(Takeaway – from year to year I understand less and less)

Dispatches for the Colonial Office