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Hidden with code "Submitted as Feature" |
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Announcement :: Peace |
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Attention Newspoets |
Current rating: 0 |
by sam hamill via gehrig
(No verified email address) |
27 Jan 2003
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Call to Newspoets to protest a February reception for poets in the White House by collecing poems against the impending invasion of Iraq. |
January 19, 2003
Dear Friends and Fellow Poets:
When I picked up my mail and saw the letter marked "The White House," I felt no joy. Rather I was overcome by a kind nausea as I read the card enclosed:
Laura Bush
requests the pleasure of your company
at a reception and
White House Symposium on
"Poetry and the American Voice"
on Wednesday, February 12, 2003
at one o'clock
Only the day before I had read a lengthy report on the President's proposed "Shock and Awe" attack on Iraq, calling for saturation bombing that would be like the firebombing of Dresden or Tokyo, killing countless innocent civilians.
I believe the only legitimate response to such a morally bankrupt and unconscionable idea is to reconstitute a Poets Against the War movement like the one organized to speak out against the war in Vietnam.
I am asking every poet to speak up for the conscience of our country and lend his or her name to our petition against this war, and to make February 12 a day of Poetry Against the War. We will compile an anthology of protest to be presented to the White House on that afternoon.
Please submit your name and a poem or statement of conscience to: kokua (at) olympus.net
There is little time to organize and compile. I urge you to pass along this letter to any poets you know. Please join me in making February 12 a day when the White House can truly hear the voices of American poets.
Sam Hamill
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@%< |
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Re: Attention Newspoets |
by Newton Bigelow
nbigelow (nospam) newtonbigelow.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 3
27 Jan 2003
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27 January 2003
Good Afternoon,
I'm writing today in a foul, black mood. My country wants to go
to war, and at this point I see very little hope that it can be avoided.
Colin Powell's comments in Davos yesterday have extinguished any
hope I had that the Bush Administration might be dissuaded from seeking
a military solution in Iraq. Whether he personally supports an invasion
or not, Powell clearly believes that his duty is to follow his President's
lead. Though I hate saying it, it seems very likely that Bush will
announce the beginning of military strikes in his speech tomorrow.
Most of my friends and neighbors here in Madrid have been telling
me for months that this thing was inevitable. Nobody has any illusions
about Bush's motives, either. Mention the "War on terrorism" or
"freeing the Iraqis from the tyrannical rule of Saddam Hussein" and
people will laugh in your face. This is the country where General
Franco lived a long, happy life as a fascist dictator, while the
rest of the Western World turned a blind eye. People here tend to
be little suspicious when they're told about the war between "good"
and "evil".
No, we know what this is about, and we have from the start. It's
about controlling the oil supply. The world is using up its oil
reserves at a staggering rate, and someday there just ain't gonna
be any left. In the meantime, though, Bush and his masters in the
oil industry see Saddam Hussein sitting on the second-largest oilfield
in the world, and think, "that boy's got to go". Oil is the largest
industry in the world, bar none. Why wouldn't we fight a war for
it? We've fought wars over bananas, for God's sake.
So, what do we do with this? It's going to happen, despite the protests,
despite the marches and petitions. Despite the objections of nearly
everybody in the international community. Bombs and guns against
the very real flesh of Iraqi citizens who will be placed as a shield
between the Americans and Saddam Hussein. Dead children, again. The
tortured and the maimed, again. The whole thing packaged as 'Reality
TV' with all the nasty bits edited out.
So what do we do? For myself, I feel that the worst possible action
is to quietly accept this obscenity. I want it known that I do
not go along with this insane policy, and I will not support George
Bush in his criminal actions. So I am going to continue to write
letters, to sign petitions, to go to marches, and to loudly and publicly
proclaim my opposition to this war. We may not be able to stop it,
but we sure as hell don't have to endorse it.
What you do is a matter of personal choice, but I encourage anyone
who has not yet taken a stand against this war to do so loudly and
unswervingly. Make it known that the President does not represent
your interests in this matter.
Do not let the bastards claim that they are doing this in our name.
Best regards,
Newton
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