BS: And it's 1,2,3,what are we fighting for?

Subject: BS: And it's 1,2,3,what are we fighting for?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 12:02 PM

I just heard on NPR that Laura Bush has canceled a forum to honor great American poets because she found out that some of the participants planned to speak out against the proposed war on Iraq. A spokesman for the First Lady said that it would be inappropriate to turn a literary event into a political event.

I remember taking a tour of the White House as a child, and being told, "You're an American, so this is your house." To paraphrase a fictional president in Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove": "Gentlemen, you can't protest in here, this is the symbol of democracy!"

I wish I were a political cartoonist. I can just see it: two mice running across the floor at a fancy White House event, carrying signs that say "NO WAR" and "DEMOCRATIC RIGHT TO SPEAK OUT", and a big, decorated general jumps on a chair, shrieking, "Eeeek!! A poet!!!!"

I can just imagine George and Laura at the great Boston Tea Party: "Officer! Arrest those men dressed as Indians. They're destroying private property!"

Tell me again, George, how we're fighting this war to uphold the principles of freedom and democracy all over the world.

I don't get angry at stuff like this any more, but I'm very, very sad.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: BS: And it's 1,2,3,what are we fighting for?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 12:04 PM

P.S. I guess I didn't make it clear: the poetry forum was to take place in the East Room of the White House.

Subject: RE: BS: And it's 1,2,3,what are we fighting for?
From: Jim Colbert
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 12:07 PM

Those damn poets ruin everything!

jim colbert

Subject: RE: BS: And it's 1,2,3,what are we fighting for?
From: JennyO
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 12:11 PM

I seem to remember someone in Dr Strangelove saying:

"You can't fight here! This is the war room!"

Subject: RE: BS: And it's 1,2,3,what are we fighting for?
From: Amos
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 12:19 PM

If she had half the brains God gave a duck she would embrace the opportunity to have poets speak out against the "proposed" war. It would cost her nothing. It would change nothing in terms of real politics. It would let the poets feel brave and heroic. And it would save her some of the rancor of the literate class. Instead, she got so fretted up about it she cancelled a meaningful literary event. She is politically inept. Unfortunately, her husband, although equally moronic, is not. Wodda maroon.

A

Subject: RE: BS: And it's 1,2,3,what are we fighting for?
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 12:29 PM

Much as this dismays me, I hope it backfires on them. Every stupid thing they do continues to give me hope.

Subject: RE: BS: And it's 1,2,3,what are we fighting for?
From: BuckMulligan
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 12:30 PM

Way back in the Cold War, the minions of the Evil Empire handed out rations of shit to various poets, among them Yevgeny Yevtushenko. One of our wittiest lyricists, Yip Harburg, wrote (in "Rhymes for the Irreverent")

"I'm not afraid of anything,"
said Khruschev,
"and they know it.
"I'm not afraid of anything,
"except perhaps a poet."

And we all felt REALLY smug and superior to the Russkies.

We may have met the enemy, and he may be us.