MrDONUT INVESTIGATES THE RIGHT TO READ

Fantasy Item: Making it clear, so Baha'is will know!

MrDonut the Ex-Bookstore Cat Reads Whatever He Likes!

MrDonut came by today with a thought. "I'll bet I can shed some light on this Covenant-Breaking issue."

"How's that?" I said.

"You don't know this, but before I was a shelter cat, I lived in the city and frequented an antiquarian bookstore there."

"You in a bookstore," I said. "Who would let you in a bookstore?"

MrDonut sniffed and turned his head slowly away. He was about to leave! Without divulging his secret! I made quick to apologize.

MrDonut sniffed and turned his head even more slowly back to me. "My father," he yawned, "was a library cat. We were welcomed to browse anywhere where books were sold."

"Mmmmm," I replied.

"Anywhere. Why?"

"Mmmmm, he grinned a little grin. "Sales!" He stifled another grin in deference to my human limitations. "We sold books! The very sight of us attracted people who wanted to buy books. They stayed in the store to talk to us and scratch us behind our ears and the longer they stayed the more books they bought. We worked better than candles, incense, and soft jazz. People brought us treats. My father got so fat he died."

"I'm sorry," I said.

"But I've kept you waiting," MrDonut admitted. "So here's the tale:

"One day the proprietor got a nice box full of religion books. It was a subject I was only partly familiar with, having spent but a few evenings chasing church mice. But here was a bonanza! Books fat and thin, plain and with photos....I pushed one out of the stacks and it fell open at my feet. I don't recall the title but it was a thin compilation of the sacred texts of various religions.

"I pawed through a few pages until my eyes landed on something familiar.. Hmmm! I said to myself. My father had showed me some of this in the library. So with eager interest I began to read until almost immediately I felt a sharp, swift blow to my eyes!

"Oh, MrDonut! How awful! Are you infected then?"

"Yes," he admitted. Infected with knowledge! I felt a slight electricity at the tip of my tail and a moment of exhilaration as Truth filled the cavity of ignorance. I believe I may have even purred."

"I am a cat, Sally. Cats cannot be infected. Only Baha'is. Only Baha'is can be trained to fear words on a page. Only Baha'is can be led by the nose by the people they are told know what is best for them, and swallow anything.

Sallly, I saw WORDS. Words cannot infect anything. If they did there would be no First Amendment. All I saw was words - words that presented a different point of view than the Baha'i Administration allows or wants its followers to know! A different point of view. The other side of the story. Events in the original words of the original players. This is justice, isn't it? Seeing with your own eyes and not with the eyes of others?

Sally, Baha'i Administration wants you to see one thing and that through their one eye/ They want you to see certain well-placed individual Baha'is as having the authority and power of God. You know that is preposterous!

What is this "infection" they threaten you with? Only KNOWLEDGE. No one ever got sick from knowing, Sally, but whole nations and peoples have perished for want of knowledge. Take the photo of Baha'u'llah! Why is it almost forbidden to look at? He's a nice-looking man, eyes full of love and power and humility. Why do they want you to spend $5,000 for a trip to Haifa to see it when it's there on the Internet? Aren't you worthy to download a copy for yourself? Isn't He your Lord? Why does Baha'i Administration work so hard to keep you down?

Drink your fill! And don't forget a bowl of Lactose-free whole milk for me.

"You mentioned that your father was a library cat. What did your mother do?

MrDonut looked up, startled. "Why, she stayed home and raised us!"



This tale has been altered from the original, which because of some extreme elements of style conveyed a point of view opposite to the author's intent. This is what happens when cats are competing for lap space.