The Free View-- weblog of a presidential candidate

Covering up War and Dissent

These two stories are a couple weeks old, but they are so disgusting that I can't let them pass without mention. The Administration has stooped to a low that I guess shouldn't surprise me, but it still does. I have a pretty positive attitude generally, and I try to apply that to others. Which is to say, I try to think the best of others when I can. And that includes the Bush Administration. At this point, I've gone from trying to think they're generally well-meaning to trying to think they're not totally evil totalitarian warlords. Trying to think being the key phrase in that sentence. Because they don't make it easy.

"What the hell are you talking about, anyway, Lance?"

I'm glad you asked.

White House Cancels Poetry Symposium

Anti-war Art Doesn't Fly at U.N.

The synopses: The first story tells of how Laura Bush decided to cancel a sceduled poetry symposium at the White House, because of rumors that a bunch of poets were planning to bring anti-war poems to read. The second story tells about how a Picasso painting ('Guernica') at the U.N. depicting the graphic images of war was covered up for a press conference...about the war.

The problem: If they are so unsure about their war that they fear the consequences of poets reading anti-war poems, or the impact of people seeing a graphic depiction of war as they promote theirs, then perhaps they are a bit too unsure about their war.

I could really unload on a major rant here, but it would be coming from a place of anger, and I'm really trying to stick with the "if you can't something nice..." rule when it comes to our evil totalitarian warlord administration. Hmm...did I just say that?

Seriously, though -- how disturbing is it that the administration feels they have to go that far to protect the image of their precious war? These literature symposiums by Laura Bush have apparently been going on for a while. What makes this one so special? Simply the fact that the people who were invited wanted to speak out (via the works of celebrated poets) against the war. To add insult to injury, Mrs. Bush is a former librarian. Apparently she's one of those rare librarians that's afraid of words...one of the few, the proud, the censoring librarians. There aren't many of those...I guess we should be proud to have such a rare breed safeguarding our nation's house from all those dangerous, doubt-inspiring words of dissent.

I think the covering up of the war painting bothers me more...in fact, I know it does. I almost flipped my lid when I first read about it. Luckily, it only mostly flipped, and I was able to get it back in place. But I'm still furious -- my face immediately goes into a frown as soon as I think about this topic. It's just So. Damn. Cowardly. I don't know what else to say about it.

Here's another story that talks about it a little, in the context of a story about Bush's seemingly unstoppable march to war: The Lessons of Guernica

It's worth noting -- quite significant actually -- that these stories were reported in Britain and Canada, respectively. CNN covered the poetry story, but only later, as a part of a story about how the shunned poets are planning an antiwar poetry gathering (called "Poems Not Fit For the White House", hehe). Apparently The Weekly Standard covered it too, pretty extensively, two+ weeks after the fact.

More on the poetry thing:
The Poets vs. The First Lady (The Weekly Standard)

PoetsAgainstThe War.org

The funny thing is that more "damage" will be done by these shunned poets than would have been done if librarian Bush had just held her symposium. Fascists are the craziest peoples! Maybe they'll figure it out eventually...you can't hide the truth behind a blue curtain...you can't suppress those who are passionate about their ideas...and you can't effectively keep the opposition down by simply disinviting them. Not in America in 2003. That shit simply does not fly in America 2003.

Anyway, they'll figure it out eventually. Hopefully on Election Day 2004, at the latest.

One more thought: Do they think they can somehow cover all this up in the eyes of history? Like, do they think that if this turns into, as Nelson Mandela put it, a holocaust, that they can just pull a big blue curtain over it, like an uncomfortable Picasso painting?