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News :: Economy |
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Free Speech Fight In New Mexico |
Current rating: 6 |
by Buster Southerly
(No verified email address) |
17 Apr 2003
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ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico high school teacher and Green Left Weekly writer Bill Nevins continues to fight his March 17 suspension from his teaching job.
In a letter sent to Nevins by the Rio Rancho school administration, he is accused of having permitted students to go on “field trips” to evening poetry contests without filing school forms. As these events were not under school control, and during students' own time, these were not field trips.
Strong suspicion has arisen among parents and students that the suspension was because Nevins, who coaches the Rio Rancho school poetry team, did not prevent students from publicly performing poems that opposed the US attack on Iraq and criticised the US government. Nevins was suspended soon after an anti-war poem — “Revolution X” — was performed over the school's closed-circuit TV system.
Students report that the school administration has virtually put the student poetry club out of business. They have been intimidated by school officials' interrogations of student poets and an interim coach has not been appointed in Nevins' absence.
Students state they are afraid of “what this means for free speech, not just in our school but in the whole USA”. They have been forbidden to read poems aloud at the school. However, a number of New Mexico adult poets have “adopted” “Revolution X” and are reading it at open poetry sessions around the state.
Meanwhile, at least seven other New Mexico teachers have been suspended or disciplined for anti-war-related matters. The American Civil Liberties Union has taken up Nevins' and many of the other suspended NM teachers' cases.
A legal defence fund has been established. Donations, words of encouragement and especially poems are very welcome and can be sent to Nevins/Poetry Defence Fund, 625 15th St NW, Albuquerque NM 87104.
From Green Left Weekly, April 16, 2003.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/current/534p26b.htm
[The poem, via The Progressive Review]
REVOLUTION X
Bush said no child would be left behind
And yet kids from inner-city schools
Work on Central Avenue
Jingling cans that read
Please sir, may I have some more?
They hand out diplomas like toilet paper
And lower school standards
Because
Underpaid, unrespected teachers
Are afraid of losing their jobs
Funded by the standardized tests
That shows our competency
When I'm in detox.
This is the Land of the Free ...
Where the statute of limitations for rape is only five damn years!
And immigrants can't run for President.
Where Muslims are hunted because
Some suicidal men decided they didn't like
Our arrogant bid for modern imperialism.
This is the Land of the Free ...
You drive by a car whose
Bumper screams
God bless America!
Well, you can scratch out the B
And make it Godless
Because God left this country a long time ago.
The founding fathers made this nation
On a dream and now
Freedom of Speech
Lets Nazis burn crosses, but
Calls police to
Gay pride parades.
We somehow
Can afford war with Iraq
But we can't afford to pay the teachers
Who educate the young who hold the guns
Against the "Axis of Evil"
Land of the Free ...
This is the land
If you're politically assertive
They call you a traitor and
Damn you to ostracism.
Say good-bye to Johnny Walker Lindh
And his family.
Bye Bye.
American Pie.
So maybe
My ideas about this nation
Don't resolve around perfection
But at least I know
Education is more important
Than money.
Land of the Free . . .
If this was utopia
We'd have to see each other naked
Before we got married
But instead, we see each other naked all the time
Because the government has my social security number
And the name of my dog!
And then we make babies,
But don't worry, they won't be left behind
And they grow up saying
God bless America!
But they don't know who Bush is
Because they never learned the Presidents.
And they will ride the ship Amistad
To our dreamland shores
Bearing the same shackles as us.
I'm here to say that
Generation X
Is pissed and we are taking over,
Ripping down the American illusion of perfection
We are the future generation
I have my qualifications
I know it looks like Angel Soft paper,
But don't worry
It's a diploma
Do I look qualified?
You can take our toilet paper,
But you can't take our Revolution. |
See also:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/
http://prorev.com/indexa.htm
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Comments
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Re: Free Speech Fight In New Mexico |
by containa
cartoon (nospam) containa.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 3
21 Apr 2003
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There are similar thoughts in other parts of the world too. See the containa.com letter to G.W.B.:
A teenager’s letter to G.W.B
Mr. President,
reluctantly at first, but joyfully after a while, my friends and I have collected used “Toys’r us” stuff to be shipped to surviving children in Iraq. In addition, the elder among us donated lots of GAP, Hilfiger, Lauren and Levy for youngsters there to be able and properly cheerish the arriving freedom and western civilization, in denims we now got rid of. Although parents did not pull the same cord and behaved less patriotic (limiting their support to money for the Red Cross) we feel free and relieved.
Funny to realize how used we had gotten to US goods. I guess it needed a valid reason like your war to forge an opinion of our own, at least one good thing about it.
Don’t let it worry you. I had already taken up tailoring some time ago (meanwhile I am doing my own baking too, thus sparing my friends from mass produced monstrosities when visiting). Your war finally brought clarity into my search for a meaningful life, it accelerated the learning process about desirable values and ethics, sharpend all senses and changed my attitude. It encouraged me to be creative in search for alternatives and I am constantly on the lookout for american labels (in order not to buy). A real cool sport.
Save My Soul (SMS)- messages that list products originating in the US are chasing like rockets through the atmosphere and have reached “cult” status by now. Have earned brownie points myself for the discovery of an “exotic” one (being as difficult as it can be to detect where goods originally came from, this sport is called “rooting”). But you know the best part? Avoiding US products is real, meaningful fun with that additional moral kick (a little different from your freedom-fries) almost a religious motivator! How long is it that we had stuff of such caliber to look up to?
It must have been for the lack of satisfying meaning that mainstream products, instead of producing content, sooner than later became a bore and spread such air of “eminemness”.
By the way of politics, Mr. President. Can you believe that I am getting on the nerves of my parents? Well, yes I do. But do take for granted that they also nod to a good 70% of my ideas (be it only to be left in peace). Are you saying to know about things like this? You consider to be in control, don’t you?
Well, did you know that we have kids-meetings now and do you realize that we are soon going to vote too? (in case you set out to further curtail the world’s right for freedom of choice you know what that shall lead to, do you?).
My perceptions on this topic are clear as clear can be, and in this context, politicians with a US-friendly attitude are not particularly en vogue. Well, do rock yourself in safe comfort and dare it that, as time goes by after you and your colleagues threw around with appeasing money and maybe introduced some cryptic Wolf-o-Witz-Plan, we shall soon have forgotten – but don’t count on it. As you may have heard from your falcon friends “Never forget” for a good while has been their preferred and profitably tune. We have adopted this and our generation shall never forget what you and your lot have set out to do to this world of ours. For this entry in the history book YOU are responsible despite or because of all sweet-kissing, bribing, foggy games and political murder – it was YOU who did it.
It is too late now (and you probably won’t be alive then), but time shall come when you would wish to have been somewhat more humble, empathetically considerate and, above all, more democratic.
G-d save your successors, Mr. President.
Contaína
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Re: Free Speech Fight In New Mexico |
by John Gesselberty
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
21 May 2004
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I think the poem, as a piece of literature, is pretty dreadful. As for content, I agree with some of the sentiment and disagree with some of it. Gen X created a lot of their own problems without the help of the government or any sitting president. However, I absolutely defend the right of the poet to express her opinions and read them. |
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Re: Free Speech Fight In New Mexico |
by Meredy Amyx, San Jose
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
23 May 2004
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In my conventional public-school education of more than 40 years ago, I was taught to regard such crimes against basic rights as the outrages that occurred under suppressive regimes in other countries and reminded frequently that we should be grateful for our freedoms in the United States. Not one of my teachers, including conservative, white-haired old ladies (hardly rabble-rouser types) who had been born in the preceding century, could have imagined a United States in which children were gagged and teachers were punished for their expressions of thought. Next we'll be having to form secret underground cells so we can discuss American politics without fear of arrest. Knock three times and whistle the refrain from "Die Gedanken Sind Frei." |
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Re: Free Speech Fight In New Mexico |
by Marty Heyman
mheyman! (nospam) symas.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
23 May 2004
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1) I hope she gets to Gay Pride in San Francisco where we "straights" go to watch the police be part of a diverse community, play with the crowds, and march on their own behalf, 2) hope she keeps writing, and 3) and hope she's around to teach poetry to the next generation, preferably at Rio Rancho after they clean up this mess. |
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Re: Free Speech Fight In New Mexico |
by Raalf LaRoo
abominatrix69 (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
24 May 2004
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Good poem..but come on now, i thought that every body knew that this wasnt the land of the free anymore. |
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Re: Free Speech Fight In New Mexico |
by Avernus
lordbub (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
25 May 2004
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Makes one wonder who the "COMMIE" was in the Cold War................ |
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Re: Free Speech Fight In New Mexico |
by Valerie
vsellis (nospam) comcast.net (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
25 May 2004
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This is the poem that stirred up all the trouble for the teacher in New Mexico. |
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Re: Free Speech Fight In New Mexico |
by George Hunt
GeoHunt1 (nospam) aol.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
25 May 2004
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Whay is revolutionary about that? It is all very mild compared to what Bush has actually done to this country, and it is all true. DEMOCRACY FOR AMERICA! |
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Re: Free Speech Fight In New Mexico |
by Waltler Wise
w.l.wise (nospam) mindspring.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
26 May 2004
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Censorship is for nazis. Hitler did it. Learn from history. It was wrong then, it is wrong now.
This is not a police state, get over it. America allows free speech and dissent, as long as that protest is within the law. There is no place in this great country for censorship. |
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Re: Free Speech Fight In New Mexico |
by Gigi
pinkpunkpornstar (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
31 May 2004
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I can't think of a more eloquent way to put words along with the way my generation feels about the whole Bush Administration. God bless those Soulless United Snakes of America! |
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Re: Free Speech Fight In New Mexico |
by naomi
naomipoole (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
12 Aug 2004
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hey i loved your poem, a buddy and i do a zine and thats a wiked poem that i think would speak to a lot of people. if you dont mind us printing it give me a shout. |
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