Last night I finished off "Ender's Shadow" by Orson Scott Card, and then I was checking to see what else I could read because I didn't want to read further into a new biography of Heinz Guderian, theorist and practioner of modern amoured warfare. For some reason I picked up Studs Terkel's "American Dreams: Lost & Found" that was lying on top of a stack of paperbacks and began to read the introduction as the author begins to weave his magic of words into images of a past the held promise; and the present that seems to many people of a promise lost. The promise of an America that will be better for the children then the parents. The promise of a better and brighter future for all Americans not just the wealthy among us.

As I read the introduction, pausing frequently to think of the import of those words, I was struck by the cry for poets to give a better voice to the American language. Studs Terkel writes,
"In 1792, Paine observed: 'The mighty objects he beholds act upon the mind by enlarging it, and partakes of the greatness by contemplating it.' In 1972 the less fraudulent of our two presidential candidates, on winning the California primary, beamed over all three networks: 'I can't believe I won the whole thing.' Thus did an Alka-Seltzer commercial enrich our political vocabulary.
"Vox populi? Is that all there is to the American Dream, as celebrated in thousands of sixty second, thirty second, and ten second spots each day on all channels? A mercantile language, debased, and nothing else? Is the no other language, no other dream?"

Well, where do poets in America stand? What is the nature of poetry in America and can poets really come to influence the language of all Americans?

I, on occasion, read the blog by Ron Sillman, Sillman's Blog

I read a number of websites and blogs on a fairly consistent basis. This item appeared on www.smirkingchimp.com today: When the Punch Line is War
By Charles Cutter
Feb 26, 2004, 20:11

"On Monday evening Mr. Bush addressed the Republican Governors Association to highlight the themes of his re-election campaign. He referenced his "war on terror" at least four times; September 11, at least five. Another solemn occasion, one would think. But to the man who dodged Viet Nam, the world of war does not inspire solemnity - at least not when he's performing for campaign money.

Speaking presumably about the Democrats, but more likely about anyone who disagrees with his administration, Mr. Bush said, "They now agree that the world is better off with Saddam Hussein out of power; they just didn't support removing Saddam from power. (Laughter.)" The parenthetical reference to "laughter" is copied from the White House web site; it's not as if they're ashamed of this levity. Mr. Bush followed up with, "Maybe they were hoping he'd lose the next Iraqi election. (Laughter and applause)'"

This is the real Mr. Bush: A so called man who makes jokes about his illegal, immoral, and anti-Christian act of war. The fact that Mr. Bush's handpicked man to head the search for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, Dr. David Kay, has publicly stated, "We were all wrong", explodes the big lie that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

Rereading President Jimmy Carter's opinion piece in the NYT, March 8, 2003, shows the utter careless, uncaring, cavalier treatment that Mr. Bush has undertaken to lead this nation into a shame that is unprecedented in American history.

Mr. Carter writes, "As a Christian and as a president who was severely provoked by international crises, I became thoroughly familiar with the principles of a just war, and it is clear that a substantially unilateral attack on Iraq does not meet these standards." As events have unfolded in the search for weapons of mass destruction from Hans Blix to David Kay there has been nothing shown by the lack of physical evidence that Saddam had a weapons of mass destruction program. That would lead any rational minded person to the inevitable conclusion that Saddam did not have those weapons, in particular nuclear weapons that would poise any serious and credible threat to the survival of America, in his possession.

Mr. Carter continues, "For a war to be just, it must meet several clearly defined criteria.

The war can be waged only as a last resort, with all nonviolent options exhausted.

The war's weapons must discriminate between combatants and noncombatants.

Its violence must be proportional to the injury we have suffered.

The attackers must have legitimate authority sanctioned by the society they profess to represent.

The peace it establishes must be a clear improvement over what exists."

From the establishment of Christian principals of "The Just War" theory
was first enunciated by St. Augustine then further embellished upon in the Middle Ages but fully brought to the currently accepted principals, as written by Mr. Carter's pen, notably the 16th-century Spanish Scholastics such as Vitoria and Suarez, and then the Dutch Protestant Scholastic Grotius and by 18th- and 19th-century jurists, was an explanation of the criteria for a just war.

However the U.S. Constitution also has a say in how we are to go about war making and, again, Mr. Bush has failed to meet the clearly defined meaning. The stark fact that there was no readily at hand nuclear weapons by Saddam's Iraq war machine only underscores the frightening willingness of Mr. Bush to use fear for political purposes that harm the national good.

I'll continue to write more on the Just War theory.

forever

these are bad men
-all of them

over 600 men (and boys, too)

imagine
-locked in a cage
so far from home

endless interrogations

these men are so evil
-our justice system of "innocent until proven guilty" isn't good enough

by any other name
bush justice is a kangaroo court, star chamber, and our lasting shame

this war on terror
will last beyond our lifetimes

we will have to bury these evil men
-without being charged
-without them seeing their loved ones
-without answering the question of "justice" but to the question of "retribution"

A new poem:

disciple

he knows that goe's hand acts through him
that he is the vessel
that he can act alone because he was the chosen

(the end justifies the means)

being the acolyte
there can be only one way- one path- one divinity
he wants to harvest souls for conversion

(lds converts the dead, too)

sanctuary and righteousness
belief that there can only be one true book
wearing out the passages of jezebel and absalom

(paradise awaits those when rapture begins)

infidels on the magic box
sacrilege to be banned by the power of government
the converted know that righteous might overcomes all

(our 9/11 was caused by a sinning nation)

he is the wielder of the spear for a nation's destiny
fear, doubt, and sin are the devil's tools
he will use the devil's tools for all the right reasons

(nothing can be taken from this life)

on mounds of dead American soldiers
the gnashing of teeth and beating of breasts by grieving civilian survivors
our blood and our treasury serving his personal relationship with his god

(christian coalition & focus on the family are his pals)

he rests each night undisturbed
each hand knowing not what the other does
with the understanding that god does not endorse our constitution

The best blogger on American hate/racist groups/individuals is by far Orcinus, http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/ . Read his latest post and see if your own personal experiences with radical reactionaries mirrors that of Neiwert's writing about.

I know that there is a lot of anger/hate directed at liberals/progressives from the radical reactionary talk shows and those people who form the listenership audience. From second hand accounts there have been incidents from people whose cars with anti-war/peace/diversity stickers being vandalized. To the offices of peace/progressive groups being broken into, and those same groups have had their websites hacked and spammed/DNS.

The divide between radical reactionaries and the rest of the population of America has never been greater. Without reasoned, rationale discourse between radical reactionaries and real conservatives, moderates, and liberal/progressives the whole process of how American democracy works under the original framers intention set out in the U.S. Constitution breaks down.

From the writings of Mr. Norquist and propoganda pieces by Coulter and the rantings of Limbaugh, Scarborough, and their ilk comes a "final solution" as espoused by a writer who sent Dave Neiwert an email:

From: "Baker, J." [liberalbasher@sbcglobal.net]
To: [webmaster@awolbush.com]
Subject: Comments . . . Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 22:33:11 -0500

You people are beyond evil. George W. Bush will be re-elected to a second term, and hopefully it will drive die-hard idiotic leftists to commit suicide, that would be the bonus round!

Instead of bitching about how much you hate George W. Bush and how he stole the election and went AWOL from the National Guard, why don't you rotten cocksuckers spend your time and money and offer up a candidate who isn't a god-damned America-hating lunatic?

You people are utterly useless to humanity and wholly better off dead, burning in eternal damnation.

Ya know, I think it's too bad that we can't follow Saddam's model of dealing with opposition - just open up mass graves and start torturing, maiming, and murdering liberals and leftists by the millions - toss them into the ground, and fill the holes up with dirt. I would love to volunteer for such duty!

Eat shit and die, all of you!

J. Baker
Phoenix

As many readers know from skimming such websites like "FreeRepublic" or "TownHall" that there is an abundance of people who are fanatical and blinded by hatred to what is authentically American as enumerated in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

If Mr. Bush and Mr. Rove are going to make a Constitutional amendment stating that "marriage is constituted as a union only between a man and a woman" one of the central pillars for his presidential election campaign. It will be historic in denying an entire segment of the population the right to "equal protection under the law".

Historically speaking the fact that Prohibition failed is the freedom of choice was denied to all adults through a minority segment of the population. The FMA is fated to be abolished to if passed over the intention and wording within the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

-------------------------------

Thank you for everyone who came out for the first anniversary poetry reading of Laura Bush's cancellation of a poetry reading at the White House. This was a nationwide event called by PoetsAgainstTheWar.org.

Oh My Goddess Coffeehouse was gracious to host the event.

A couple of plugs:

Breakdown Book Collective - 1409 Ogden Street - Denver - 303-832-7952
Blea is a 53 year-old Hispanic-American hired by the owners of the Breakdown building to maintain the outside sidewalk and curbside. He plants the grass, and picks up your cigarette butts and bottles. His performance--a full theatric production of his poetry including character, costume, lighting, and a catchy Dick Dale-ish soundtrack--is a pleasant creative gesture from the unassuming caretaker of Breakdown's block. Understandably, to a bunch of radicals, "Patriotic Act" sounds suspicious at best (what with being the namesake of grave and recent legislation). How patriotism falls into Blea's message, is uknown BUT seeing the patriotic act will be worthwhile. Blea knows too well how marginalized his voice is in the mainstream (as well as occasionally, to our collective dismay, the not-so-mainstream). He knows how classes are structured and he knows prisons. Learning all this from Blea involves his "patriotic act" but also involves Blea himself. He chooses his words carefully and impresses them with other words and this is exciting.


On Thursday, February 12, 8 p.m.
On the first anniversary of Laura Bush's cancellation of a Poetry reading in the White House there will be a poetry reading at Oh My Goddess Coffeehouse, 1526 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. PoetsAgainstTheWar.org had a nationwide call for this! So come on out and read!

This just off the newswires- http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040207/ap_on_re_us/activist_investigation

"In addition to records about who attended the forum, the subpoena orders the university to divulge all records relating to the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, a New York-based legal activist organization that sponsored the forum."

Drake University administration ought to fight this "fishing expedition" by the BushCo lawyers for what it is- legal harrassment and intimidation of legitimate free speech that is protected under the Bill of Rights.

Further in the AP story- According to a copy obtained by The Associated Press, the Drake subpoena asks for records of the request for a meeting room, "all documents indicating the purpose and intended participants in the meeting, and all documents or recordings which would identify persons that actually attended the meeting."

It also asks for campus security records "reflecting any observations made of the Nov. 15, 2003, meeting, including any records of persons in charge or control of the meeting, and any records of attendees of the meeting."

Of course the judge in the case issued this- "A source with knowledge of the investigation said a judge had issued a gag order forbidding school officials from discussing the subpoena."

BTW- From mobile, temporary jails known as "free speech zones" BushCo will do all to subvert the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights through any means possible. Under cover and out of the public's eye and knowledge BushCo will try to achieve it's aims of creating a plutocratic/fascistic/theological state which will never acknowledge the secular political basis of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Our nation is founded upon the ideal that it is we, as citizens, can confer upon those we vote for the right to be governed. It is not the divinity conferring a right to an individual to govern a nation's citizens but it is the citizens who have that right in this country. God is not a part of the political process as enumerated in the U.S. Constitution.

Democratic Party activists in the seven states have been focused on taking Bush out of the White House. While the primary season has to play itself out, I am for a strong candidate who has the smarts and toughness to take the fight to Bush. Not a candidate that will lay back and let Bush dictate the field of play but to shape the battleground for the America that I grew up in. An America that has given hope to all of the oppressed peoples of the world. An America that has shown that the sum is greater then the parts, and we as a people united can do great works and great good for all of humanity.

Bush is not the America that I believe in as delineated in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The very ideological foundations that Bush upholds are antithetical to the U.S. Constitution. Under his illegal reign Bush has set up a secret military tribunal system that is anathema to the legal principals that are the hall marks of the American justice system as envisioned by the founders of this nation. His use of meaningless legal terms to obfuscate those he holds in military prisons throughout the world are on the same level as the worst dictators from the political spectrum running from facists to communists. Across the world there is universal condemnation of the Bush vision of justice.

What Bush does not recognize but legal and history and political thinkers all agree on is that old adage "What is good for the goose is good for the gander". The justice that is understood by Bush will come back to haunt all Americans.

This a poem that I wrote when I first learned of John Ashcroft's proclivity for reading the racist rag called Southern Partisan.



Civil War

the american swastika of stars n bars flapping in the wind
dirty scuffed jack boots raising dust as the remnants flee
sweat flows into a visages of grooved lines of hatred and bitter defeat

(what respect does one have for closet racists
at the beginning of the third millenium?)

under a sunless sky
over bubbling brown waters
walking on a lacerated landscape
a straggling column of fundamentalist fanatics chanting

(what do you call men and women who worship
the inner moral depravity of a culture based upon
bondage?)

tatter clothed, unhorsed dragoons
in resolute blind eyed fatalism
leaderless except for their belief in HIM

(what will our progeny think of us who are silent?)

their foot prints upon the desolate grasslands
having waged their brutal pitiless war
there is only a line of unmarked mounds marking their passage
their foot prints will vanish upon the coming of the new year