Another Misguided Offering from The Historian~From King Tut to Frank Morris, Alex Torres to Elvis

From the editor:  It's hard to turn down a friend asking for a slice of the blogosphere, especially when the alternative is expensive therapy by a mental health professional. 

A close friend, self-styled as "The Historian," finds his or her sleep frequently interrupted by recurring dreams of tragic events in history, then recycles those nightmares over and over in various forms.  

Once again, we lend this forum for a day to "The Historian:" 

Jim,

Thank you once again for the use of your blog for a day.  Finding a conduit for my bad historical dreams is therapeutic.

As I've told you and others, my brain connects current events with ancient tragedies and I can't turn those dreams off.  Recently, I'm replaying in my head parallels between ancient Egypt and 21st century Brownsville, Cameron County.

3,500 years ago, ancient Egyptians settled the flood plains along the Nile River.  The periodic floods with the Nile's waters spreading unabated into millions of acres, while dangerous, had agricultural benefits.

The waters of the Rio Grande River between the U.S. and Mexico likewise have inadequate control with U.S. levees intentionally kept 6 feet below a level that would prevent the City of Brownsville from floods during a Catagory 4 Hurricane Beulah-type storm.  If the U.S. had the appropriately sized levees, Matamoros only would flood.  A gentleman's agreement between the two countries allows for flooding of both cities should a major hurricane come.

Ancient Egyptians also had difficulty accepting death, especially the loss of a leader.  Special embalming fluids, massive pyramid-shaped tombs packed with personal belongings and servants were constructed to help icons achieve immortality.  The leader was even buried, sitting upright, as if still leading, ruling his people.

Jim, local Republicans are doing the same with resigned party chairman Frank Morris. They refuse to acknowledge that he has "passed on" as a manager of the county's party. 

Frank told them he was resigning as chairman, state delegate, not paying any more office bills and turning in the keys. 

Many of his followers are wailing day and night, refusing to accept the reality of his resignation.   But, chanting "Frank, Frank, Frank" outside the service entrance of the V.I.C.C. will not bring Frank back.

Jim, another nightmare coming during frantic REM's is the morphing of Alex Torres into Elvis Presley or really an Elvis Presley impersonator.(Please, don't intepret this.  Just hear me out!."

Alex Torres

  Jim, my dreams go to the Elvis concerts of the early 70's just before his death.  He would leave the stage, but come back for one encore, then another.  But, the audience was never satisfied.  Finally, an auditorium or tour official would have to go to the microphone to tell the crowd:  "Elvis has left the building!"

When Elvis died, none of us wanted to believe it. Taking advantage of our selfish desire for Elvis to be immortal, 250,000 Elvis impersonators found work.  Many of them come to Los Fresnos every year for the Elvis Festival.  

Elvis Impersonator

Jim, I see history repeating itself with Alex Torres, a true believer in Frank Morris.  In a very short time Alex has become a Frank impersonator, trying to discipline and rule the local party as only Frank could.  Just as many of the Elvis impersonators have the singer down pat, it's become hard to tell Alex from Frank.

Later,

The Historian