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On the eve of the true
millennium,
we sent desperate
runners to
Marathon,
and battled with
Jamie on the
plains of Syracuse,
until, harried
and broken, he
surrendered, agreeing
at last to start his
term paper on
“Slavery in Ancient
Greece,”
discovering that this great
civilization, with its
democracy, its philosophy, its
Socrates and Pericles,
rested on the tired backs
of slaves,
and relieved, two thousand
years later, I sat down
to read Leaves of Grass,
while Sandy cleaned
the house, and put in
the second wash.
Schechter’s Apology
December 31, 2000