Sunday, February 09, 2003

WENDELL BERRY
A Citizen's Response to the National Security Strategy of the United States of America



EXCERPT:
"It is useless to try to adjudicate a long-standing animosity by asking who started it or who is the most wrong. The only sufficient answer is to give up the animosity and try forgiveness, to try to love our enemies and to talk to them and (if we pray) to pray for them. If we can't do any of that, then we must begin again by trying to imagine our enemies' children who, like our children, are in mortal danger because of enmity that they did not cause.

We can no longer afford to confuse peaceability with passivity. Authentic peace is no more passive than war. Like war, it calls for discipline and intelligence and strength of character, though it calls also for higher principles and aims. If we are serious about peace, then we must work for it as ardently, seriously, continuously, carefully, and bravely as we now prepare for war."

http://www.draftgore.com/
MEANWHILE....IN NEW HAMPSHIRE...

"Howard Dean Looks to N.H. Independents"

Former Vermont Governor Looks to Independent Voters in New Hampshire Democratic Primary
The Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. Feb. 5 — "Polls say Howard Dean isn't the first choice of New Hampshire Democrats, but the former Vermont governor is doing well among a tantalizing voting bloc in the state's closely watched presidential primary: independents.
A recent American Research Group poll showed Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry leading among likely voters in the Democratic primary, with 27 percent to Dean's 15 percent.
But Dean had a slight edge among the 38 percent of registered New Hampshire voters who identify themselves as independents and the state lets independents vote in either party's primary.
The numbers don't mean much with the primary a year away. But Dean hopes to emulate Arizona Sen. John McCain, who rode broad independent support to an 18-point win over George W. Bush in the 2000 Republican primary.
"What people liked about John McCain they will like about me," Dean said during a recent stop in Concord. "With me, what you see is what you get. And you're not going to like every bit of it, but you're always going to know where I stand and why I stand there."
Nearly one-third of those who voted in both of the 2000 primaries were independents. Among independents who voted Republican, more than 60 percent chose McCain. Bill Bradley had solid support from independents in the Democratic primary, but lost to Al Gore.
Dante Scala, a political scientist at Saint Anselm College, said no Democrat has caught fire yet the way McCain did in 2000. But Scala said it's early.
"At this stage in '99, even John McCain wasn't John McCain," Scala said. "He was just another candidate."
The American Research telephone poll of 600 registered Democrats and undeclared voters in New Hampshire who said they vote in most Democratic primary elections was conducted Jan. 7 through Jan. 10. It had a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points."
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What Howard Dean thought about SOTU 2003 Speech

"Democrats must nominate a candidate who can win.
Remember, we're not going to beat Bush with Bush lite."
Vermont Governor Howard Dean

The White House has no problem with a poet's right to free speech...as long as that right's not EXCERCISED IN the White House.
Frankly, the White House would rather not, thank you.

"Poets kept out of White House raise voices"

EXCERPT:
By PETER CRABTREE Herald Staff
Rutland Herald / Saturday, February 8, 2003

"MANCHESTER — Jay Parini was one of several writers invited to the White House literary symposium. He had hoped to say at least a few words to Laura Bush and, if he happened to show up, her husband, the president.
But then the first lady learned that Parini, a Middlebury College faculty member, and some other guests planned to protest the impending war with Iraq.
And so she canceled the event.
“I was stunned,” Parini said Thursday. “I was quite eager to go to the White House. I thought there might be an opportunity there.”
While the doors to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. were closed to Parini and his colleagues, others have opened in response.
The Northshire Bookstore has organized a reading that will give Parini and other noted writers from Vermont and elsewhere the chance to voice their opinions.
A Poetry Reading In Honor of the Right of Protest as a Patriotic and Historical Tradition, to be held at the First Congregational Church on Feb. 16, grew out of the alarm bookstore owners Edward and Barbara Morrow felt over the direction the country is taking.
“What has struck me is the number of letters to the editor, and even some op-ed pieces, that excoriate those who are critical of American policy or who go into the streets to protest something,” Edward Morrow said. “They’re seen as unpatriotic, as not loyal.
“The war in Iraq, you can look at that however you want to look at it. But the notion that protest and dissent and free speech is unpatriotic is so twisted that it’s alarming.”
The first lady’s press secretary suggested that postponing the symposium, which was to take place Feb. 12, was not a free speech issue.
“While Mrs. Bush respects and believes in the right of all Americans to express their opinions, she, too, has opinions, and believes that it would be inappropriate to turn what is intended to be a literary event into a political forum,” Noelia Rodriguez said last week."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

" Parini quoted W.H. Auden, whose poem “September 1, 1939,” a meditation on the start of World War II, includes the lines “All I have is a voice/to undo the folded lie.”
That is all any poet has, Parini said. And that is why poetry matters in dangerous times.
“Any little thing that helps suggest to the American people that the ... war drum they hear beating on TV and in the major media with such unanimity is not really the voice of the people seems to be important,” he said.
Morrow called the reading an “adjunct” to the Loyalty Day parade held in Manchester each spring.
“This is recognizing that loyalty is not just a day,” he said. “It’s part of how you live your life. And protesting or dissenting is loyal. It’s at the core of why we’re admired around the world and what makes us different.”

Whether the First Congregational Church is filled for the reading, which begins at 4 p.m., the event will have to be declared a success, according to Parini.

“It’s called attention to the fact that poets are against the war in a big way,” he said. “It’s already achieved that, even before the reading takes place.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

See also:
NEW YORK TIMES STORY