Re: US Tragedyrichard... what about a poetry of silence from you.... your point scoring at this terrible time is obscene.... joanne burns
----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Dillon
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 4:52 AM
Subject: Re: US Tragedy
No. The _100 Days_ poet does not believe that President Bush is in their family. You haven't spoken one word of support for the USA and its leadership.
Instead you speak in sentimental terms, with I feel your pain as a mantra.
The people of the City of New York are handling this horror with maturity and civilization, the civilization which is the United States of America, under attack by tyrants and the real war mongers.
In the coming hours the President of the United States is going to have to hunt down and kill the man who attacked our country. That is the High Noon drama. A shadow has taken its best shot. Now you will see how sharp a shooter America is.
Those poets who stand with USA and its President - and believe it or not there are a few - expect no support from the fellow travellers in _100 Days_. Our President is strong and well grounded, unlike the man who he replaced or the one he had to defeat.
Either you are useful and with us or you stand in the wake of history with your compeers like Anne Waldman and Neville Chamberlain. I stand with Churchill and George Bush.
This is a poetry discussion room and we are discussing poetry and its politics.
So far in this world of poetry Richard Dillon is the only one who has overtly taken the side of the United States and its President. I can only conclude that many of you are dancing in the streets joyfully with the Palestinians, who bring their babies up to do what we have witnessed.
This is a family tragedy, Richard. Hardly the time to decide that some
people aren't members of the family. It might be good to wait till the
grief subsides to come out swinging.
Mark
At 01:01 PM 9/11/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>I can't wait to read your _objective_ commentary on those days in the 1950s.
>
>I still haven't seen a word of support from people like you for
>President Bush. And there won't be. It isn't in you. So, move to
>Iraq. It is war, Baby.
>
>>The idiotic filth in _100 Days_ contributed to the horror of these hours.
>>
>>
>>>At 11:58 am 11/9/01 -0400, Richard Dillon wrote:
>>>>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
>>>>
>>>>But the poetry community has been attacking this President since he
>>>>got started.
>>>>_100 Days_ was its preeminent attack.
>>>>
>>>>Poetry, now, operates in current history. Unlike Blake, many current
>>>>poets stand, it seems, with the enemies of the United States.
>>>>
>>>>I await the moment with the writers in _100 Days_ declare their
>>>>allegiance with Bin Lauden. It would be an honest thing to do.
>>>>
>>>
>>>As someone currently cut off by phone from a friend in DC, able only to
>>>wait for the cross-Atlantic phone lines to start working again, and also as
>>>a friend of the editors of 100 Days, I find it unfortunate that while I
>>>cannot phone my friend to find out whether he is safe, this kind of idiotic
>>>filth could make it across the same communication lines. The war-mongering
>>>leaders of the US and my own government have bombed civilians in Iraq, the
>>>Sudan and elsewhere: this is no justification for the loss of civilian life
>>>in the US presently, just as the actions of Bin Laden could never justify
>>>our _illegal_ attacks. And no, no-one has to claim allegiance with Bin
>>>Laden to feel outrage at US/UK policy, that is so outrageously simplistic
>>>that my day's research in the library on America in the McCarthyite 1950s
>>>is brought suddenly and frighteningly into focus.
>>>
>>>yours in anger,
>>>
>>>Malcolm Phillips
>>>
>>>/ / / / / / / / / / / /
>>>
>>>Flat 59 room 2
>>>Albany Park
>>>St Andrews
>>>KY16 8BP
>>>Scotland
>>>(00 44) + 1334 427862 (internal university number 7862)
>>
>>
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