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Tuesday, October 12, 2004 |
Awhile back, I introduced you to James Bowman, the poet who was analyzing the Republican National Convention in the form of poetry. He is back with NPR's national radio show "All Things Considered," writing poetry about the presidential and vp debates. Here is his poem based off of the second debate. You can hear him read his poems at NPR.
You can read the other poems he has written for the previous debates at his website, James Bowman. The following poem is titled The Temptation of John Kerry, or "Right into the Camera." [Emphasis is Bowman's]
"Senator Kerry. . ."
Said James Varner of St. Louis.
". . .would you be willing to look directly into the camera. . ."
For the camera doesn’t lie.
For the camera is the window into the soul of the electorate.
". . .and using simple and unequivocal language give the American people your solemn pledge. . ."
For to pledge is to commit oneself.
To pledge is to buy the ring and to meet the parents.
". . .not to sign any legislation that will increase the tax burden. . ."
And faintly stirs the echo:
"And The Congress will push me to raise taxes.
And I''ll say no.
And they''ll push again, and all I can say to them is ‘Read my lips: no new taxes.’"
". . .on families earning less than $200,000 a year during your first term?"
And so the young hero turned his face to the camera.
He did not hesitate, that one brave in battle.
"Absolutely. Yes. . ."
And yes I said yes I will Yes.
". . .Right into the camera. Yes. I am not going to raise taxes."
So passion’s debt was paid.
And so it fell to a man named George Bush to tell us that our wooer -
Ours and the camera’s -
Was "just not credible."
Well, he ought to know.
8:23:06 PM  | |
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Jonathan Schwartz typed up a part of Seymour Hersh's speech at Berkeley on October 8th in which he explained the details of a conversation he had with an American lieutenant in Iraq who had just witnessed other American soldiers massacring Iraqis.
Here is the content of this lieutenant's conversation with Hersh:
HERSH: I got a call last week from a soldier -- it's different now, a lot of communication, 800 numbers. He's an American officer and he was in a unit halfway between Baghdad and the Syrian border. It's a place where we claim we've done great work at cleaning out the insurgency. He was a platoon commander. First lieutenant, ROTC guy.
It was a call about this. He had been bivouacing outside of town with his platoon. It was near, it was an agricultural area, and there was a granary around. And the guys that owned the granary, the Iraqis that owned the granary... It was an area that the insurgency had some control, but it was very quiet, it was not Fallujah. It was a town that was off the mainstream. Not much violence there. And his guys, the guys that owned the granary, had hired, my guess is from his language, I wasn't explicit -- we're talking not more than three dozen, thirty or so guards. Any kind of work people were dying to do. So Iraqis were guarding the granary. His troops were bivouaced, they were stationed there, they got to know everybody...
They were a couple weeks together, they knew each other. So orders came down from the generals in Baghdad, we want to clear the village, like in Samarra. And as he told the story, another platoon from his company came and executed all the guards, as his people were screaming, stop. And he said they just shot them one by one. He went nuts, and his soldiers went nuts. And he's hysterical. He's totally hysterical. And he went to the captain. He was a lieutenant, he went to the company captain. And the company captain said, "No, you don't understand. That's a kill. We got thirty-six insurgents."
You read those stories where the Americans, we take a city, we had a combat, a hundred and fifteen insurgents are killed. You read those stories. It's shades of Vietnam again, folks, body counts...
You know what I told him? I said, fella, I said: you've complained to the captain. He knows you think they committed murder. Your troops know their fellow soldiers committed murder. Shut up. Just shut up. Get through your tour and just shut up. You're going to get a bullet in the back. You don't need that. And that's where we are with this war.
While I was growing up, I was not cognizant of the Vietnam war. But from what I have read, this story reminds me of that war; it reminds me of the extermination of Jews under Hitler throughout Europe; and it echoes the ethnic genocide in the war torn lands of Slovokia and Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur. We should be above this behavior.
7:22:00 PM | |
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