<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">A LITTLE STORY ABOUT AN ANCIENT CHINESE EMPEROR</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Thousands of years ago in ancient China a boy emperor ruled for awhile.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">The Imperial Court had placed the child on the throne so that he could be</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">a mouthpiece for the Imperial Court's desires.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Coddled from birth, surrounded by servants and sycophants,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">told by The Imperial Court that he was The Son of Heaven,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">given to believe he had no obligation to anyone but his Imperial Court,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">pampered and protected from any notion of what the real world was like,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">from any idea of what The People had to put up with every day,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">The Emperor stomped and swaggered through the world</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">telling The People what to do, taking whatever he wanted,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">robbing from the poor and giving to the rich, and sending</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">his armies out to terrorize whomever he took a notion to despise.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">The Emperor ruled for a long time and thousands of The People</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">died, killed by his armies and because of his abuse and neglect.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">But, eventually, after great suffering, The People rose up and</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">crushed the man who called himself The Son of Heaven.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">And they crushed his Imperial Court as well.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Then some time passed in which The People lived in relative calm</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">until another Emperor, like the one in this story, came along.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- David Budbill</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>