you know for a while everything slows down, days blend into each other, and i have not a damn thing to tell you, my loyal readers (you exist, right?)
first, my descent into a life of crime. a life based on lies, if you will. i have committed fraud, lied to authority, and taken on someone else's identity. and i did it all at the public library. first off, let me say that i have punctuality issues. i rarely make it anywhere less than fifteen minutes late, and i have trouble when returning borrowed items. there is no video store who will rent to me, and some in which i can not even show my face. this is to say nothing of my library fines. i took out a large amount of books about a year ago, and returned them a month late. and paid my fine about two months ago.
at which point i was informed that i am now on "library probation." meaning that i can only take out three books at a time, for a year or until i show that i am trustworthy, whichever is longer. this is not an acceptable situation, given that i'd be back in the library every three or four days to get new books, and besides that i'm borrowing for Princess Messyface now too. therefore, with the help of my accomplice, i have become...my mother.
here's where it gets tricky. before i became my mother, i borrowed a book under my name. when i returned a large stack of books, the one in my name was overdue. rather than admit to having committed library fraud (because that is NOT how one gets out of probation), i said she had taken that book out. then the computer screen popped up saying that "my mother" had never paid a substantial fine from last august. which i had. so i had to say that i had brought the money in for my mother, and paid her fine. great. except that the person i paid it too is Younger Brother's ex-girlfriend's mom. a notorious flake, obviously, since she never recorded my fine as paid. they left a note for her saying that i had paid her for my mother's fine.
i am living in fear of being found out and banned from the public library for all eternity.
oh incidentally happy birthday america! bringing me to my next piece of news, the update on the amiri baraka scandal. the state senate has voted to abolish the position of poet laureate entirely, since governor mcgreevey has no authority to actually fire baraka. i've already made my statements about his poem elsewhere, so i'll just reiterate that yes it's an angry poem, but criticism of israel is not tantamount to anti-semitism.
having said that, let me jump right in to the next phase of the argument. first of all, the term each poet laureate serves is two years long. baraka has just finished his first year. if you really want the guy out, just wait another twelve months and it'll be taken care of naturally. secondly, exactly what kind of message are you sending to the other 49 states about freedom of speech?
to abolish a cultural and artistic position because someone disagrees with the art being produced is unconscionable. it is censorship of the worst kind: legislated. to actually sponsor, much less pass a bill to forcibly silence someone because one disagrees with what he or she is saying leaves the first amendment weakened.
Sen. Richard Codey has been quoted as saying that since baraka receives a $10,000 per year stipend, he has a responsibility not to offend. he has confused poetry, apparently, with a widget. amiri baraka is not paid to write poetry for the state of new jersey. he is paid to lecture, advise the state libraries, and be generally a figurehead for the arts in the state.
nobody told baraka he was supposed to be a non-threatening figurehead. someone who could be pointed to while saying "see? we support the arts in new jersey." and even better, a person of color! two birds with one stone! until, that is, something controversial happens. amiri baraka's problem is that he took his job seriously. he believed in being a voice for the minority, for the dissenters. who were, and are still being, since september 11, ruthlessly quashed. he advocated the use of public libraries as meeting places, the publication of political poetry, and self-publication, no less, so that corporate interests had no part. he went out and did stuff. how dare he?
this is in keeping with the cancellation by laura bush of a february 12 poetry reading, when it was discovered that one of the invited guests was spearheading a "poets against the war" campaign. and that the majority of american poets were speaking out against the war. ironically, that symposium was called "poetry and the american voice."
how silly of us, thinking there was more than one acceptable american voice.
assholes. flaming assholes. -beatpoetgrrl
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