I have wonderful friends, but for someone who puts such a premium on friendship, I'm not always such a good friend myself.

[caption id="attachment_909" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Mick"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/DSC_0137.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-909" title="DSC_0137" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/DSC_0137-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

My friend Mick and I disagree on most things when it comes to politics. Although neither of us is totally consistent, in general I think I could say with a fair degree of accuracy that he's a conservative and I'm a liberal.

I suppose that maybe our strongest area of disagreement is that I am a firm believer in the right of workers to form unions and to bargain collectively, while Mick probably loathes labor unions as much as he loves the New York Yankees.

I'm not much of a Yankee fan myself, but we seem to be OK with that area of disagreement.

At any rate, we have come to blows -- figuratively, not literally -- over what I consider a major power grab by the Republican governor of Wisconsin in trying to eliminate collective bargaining by the public employee unions in his state.

The thing is, it doesn't matter.

No matter how often I make witty comments on <em>Huffington Post</em>, no matter how many bon mots I write on Facebook, none of it really has any effect on what is happening in Wisconsin or in the country. I may or may not be an effective enough writer to make a difference, but my outlets certainly don't have the reach or the influence to change anything that is happening.

All they do is upset my friend, the best friend I have ever had and the best friend I ever will have.

And that sucks.

I have a poster on my wall that I have had for years, from the movie "Bang the Drum Slowly." The tagline on it, one that has always resonated with me, is "Nothing is more important than friendship. Not fame. Not money. Not death."

I believe that.

I'm sorry, my friend, if I hurt you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg8SO24gygU