I heartily agree! In the face of this terrible tragedy--silence is the only
fitting response--for now. Jesse Glass
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From: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
To: British poets <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, March 31, 1999 1:19 AM
Subject: Re: One argument for continued military action
>I feel rather like echoing Peter Riley's exasperated post and suggesting
>that all poets shut up.
>
>How does this "discussion" contribute to anything? Poets are impotent in
>these situations at the best of times: let's not display our impotence in
>crisis with meaningless displays of recrimination and bombast. Surely
>Gabriel's admirable attempts to hang on to human qualities of openness
>and courtesy towards other points of view are worth attending? If we
>can't hang on to a common humanness, a common understanding, in the face
>of overwhelming pressures to "take sides", then any ideal of discussion
>might as well be abandoned now.
>
>No, in saying this I am not making excuses for any of the horrific
>crimes now taking place. Anywhere.
>
>Nothing we can do here will make any difference to those people - on
>either "side" - who are now suffering. I think this should be foremost
>in our minds. It might be possible - if we believe in the possibility of
>civilised discourse - to exchange information and ideas that might
>otherwise be hard to find, and to piece together some picture of what
>might be happening. And, perhaps, make a stand, however small, for the
>fragile but crucial virtues of human kindness, tolerance, trust and
>compassion, and the distinctions of complex truths in the face of
>steamrolling and self-interested simplifications. These are things that
>are being destroyed, even between us, as much as the homes and lives of
>thousands of innocent people.
>
>And where are the Serbian and Albanian poets?
>
>Alison
>
>
>
>Home Page: http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/bronte/338
>Masthead online: http://www.geocities.com/soho/studios/5662
>
>PO Box 186
>Newport VIC 3015
>Australia
>
>
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