[Newspoetry] Rick here RE oh shit

[prince myshkin]

Okay.  This is a lot more discussion than I expected so I gladly take back 
that part of my earlier email, at least as it applies to Mike and Anne.  But 
you're all talking to me as if I voted for Gore, or ever said that anybody 
should have.  Oh dear.


As everyone who knows me could easily know, I voted for Nader in 1996 and 
2000.  Some of you also know I campaigned actively for the Green Party in 
San Diego (who frankly are not doing so well);  I raised money for them at 
fundraisers and plugged them heavily and repeatedly on call-in shows on 
NPR.  I wrote anti-Gore songs and sang them for audiences full of people I 
didn't know, many of them clearly Gore supporters (out of fear or 
enthusiasm, usually a confused mixture of both).  I wrote emails and sent 
them all over the University of California explaining why it was not only 
intelligent and noble but also strategic to vote for Nader.  I happen to 
know that many people voted for Nader because of those emails.  I protested 
at the Democratic and Republican national conventions, taking the streets in 
LA beneath an enormous Nader puppet and clowning ecstatically before 
terrifying police whom the Democrats gladly sicked on us.  I also, 
incidentally, wrote pro-Nader newspoetry back in February 2000, and have 
been producing anti-Clinton theater and songs since before he was elected in 
1992.


You do not, in other words, have to convince me that Gore is a pile of shit, 
nor that the differences between Gore and Bush are indefensibly small -- 
though thanks for trying -- because I already agree with you much more than 
I agree with anyone who voted for Gore.


(And no, I will never agree that there are no differences.  To choose just 
one example, pace Sam:  Growing up gay in the 1980's -- remember that?  Tell 
your mom about it.  Though I hate to give Clinton credit for anything and 
wish he would crawl into a hole and blow himself until his dress was covered 
with world famous stains, it was pretty embarrassing how many of my very 
publicly "straight" high school friends found it very difficult to relate, 
or in some cases speak, to me about homosexuality -- those who didn't insult 
me directly, that is -- until much later when all those gay soldiers were on 
the news.  I am frankly jealous of the gay high school students who grew up 
in the 90's, and I don't want the next generation of US high school students 
to be doomed to another 80's -- and yes I KNOW Gore is a born-again 
Christian and no I don't expect anything good from him, nor do I expect gay 
people to automatically find Nader a good choice.  Mostly what I'm saying is 
that pangs of confusion and fear about this are normal, moral, and real, and 
those folks who profess not to feel them -- are lucky, I guess.  And most of 
them, show the votes, are straight.  Perhaps they should forgive others for 
not envying them their luck.)


But whether or not I agree that there are no differences, I voted for Nader 
and was and am proud of it, despite severe disappointment about the way he 
campaigned (deleterious, I think, to his own credibility and OUR likelihood 
of winning the needed 5% -- I don't care if it was deleterious to Gore).  
Then I was faced with the fact, which everyone who really considers 
her/himself "progressive"/"left" or whatever should take very seriously, 
that about 50 million Americans, many of them feeling that they had a larger 
stake in this election than most of the "left", did NOT think there were no 
differences.  They gave up on Nader, for which I won't blame them, and voted 
for Gore, who would have won the election if it weren't for a series of very 
scary events.  You all know what those events were.  Now, during them, was I 
to assume that (1) you didn't think it was a big deal that a paid right wing 
mob converged on a vote counting center and forced a recount to stop?  (2) 
you don't find it scary that a precedent has been set by the Supreme Court 
regarding the "equal protection" of white votes that have been counted 
against black votes that haven't?  (3) the only reason you don't find it 
scary is because your candidate didn't win, and you don't like Gore so what 
does it matter?


Well I don't know whether any of those things are true or not -- I kind of 
doubt it.  Please note that I DIDN'T assume them, in any case.  Instead, I 
did what lots and lots of leftists did.  I tried to protest the terrifying 
turns of events in the month following the election as best I could.  Not 
for Gore's benefit.  (Though the media did its best to mischaracterize those 
protests as "pro-Gore", and the people who didn't mind, or didn't care, as 
"pro-Bush" -- a scary fact in and of itself.)  Few of us were happy that 
Gore might benefit from what we were doing, nor did any of us imagine that 
this cause would be celebrated by all who call themselves "left", any more 
than anything ever is.  No, the point of all that activism was to produce a 
fair result for a lot of people with a lot of cards stacked against them 
(more, frankly, than we imagined), who, as it happens, had voted, or tried 
to vote, for Gore.  They do not deserve this outcome.  One could argue that 
they wouldn't have deserved what probably would have happened if Gore had 
taken office either -- but surely, that's a different category of problem.  
In any case it could never be okay to say to them "doesn't matter who you 
vote for, don't care if your votes are counted, because the person you voted 
for sucked."  And it sure as hell won't strengthen "the left" for that to be 
anybody-on-it's position.


So what did I do, while working hard as hell in school and one of my best 
friends ever dying and me being jerked out of my usual context?  I sent more 
emails around, trying to make reasonable arguments (countering, among 
others, some of Nader's), did more radio spots and performances and protests 
(in which I maintained my public revulsion for Gore and respect for Nader), 
and, incidentally, sent two things to the Newspoetry list encouraging people 
to sign email petitions and attend protests.  I read that list daily, so I 
know I was the only person who sent such things to that address.  And I know 
that there were no direct responses.


But shortly thereafter, a poem by Sam Markewich appeared which you all may 
remember:  (and before I quote the poem, I quote Sam's remark to me:  "I 
found the tone of your email to be rather pouty and juvenile, and thus 
rhetorically wholey inefective")






Hey Gang, uh, This is Just a Thought I Had That I Kinda' Thought Might, uh, 
be, Like, Important, or Something, You Know?. : a critique in the form of a 
wicket poorly constructed poem in the form of an avant garde palindrome
Sign *This*!

....
So, many leftists now fight
Over who should be might
As if the concept of rights is infallibly right --
and limited too to what's already always already right.
As if the consortium of votes should all go to Gore
Because Bush's a republican
And therefore more malicious
So, for the sake of democracy Gore's democratically non-pernicious?!
.... what's left anymore when so many leftists are fighting for Gore, as if 
fighting against Bush is a revolutionary war and fighting against the 
presidency is not.




Okay Sam, if you don't want to sign the petition I sent you, don't.  But 
"Sign This"?  "This" is a grotesque mischaracterization of everything that 
activists struggled for during those amazingly shitty weeks.  It's doubly 
disturbing because it repeats the deliberate slander by the mainstream media 
that those of us who protested were only protesting "for Gore", as if our 
issue was that Gore didn't win and had nothing to do with the rights of 
minority voters.  And by the way, Sam, "fighting against the presidency" is 
not a "revolutionary war" as long as nobody is doing it, you either.  Maybe 
you should start.


I wrote a response to Sam's poem.  Sam's was "published," mine was not.  
Editorial discretion?  Whatever.  There wasn't any discussion of that 
interchange, so that's what I get for being polite and using perfect iambs.


Then there was a crushing defeat of those protests, followed by more and 
uglier media slander.  And then, just when by the way I'm feeling, you know, 
really great about the whole thing, sent to me by email, comes this:


> >12. Number of people who voted for Nader who subsequently think that
>Gore will be better than Bush for some reason:
> >a. I want a recount!
> >b. Flapjacks...Mmmmm
> >c. I want a dolly!
> >d. Fneeh!


"I want a recount!...  I want a dolly!"
Indeed?
Forget the mainstream media.  If Bush could write, he could have written 
this himself, not that he has any reason to bother.
If the wide spectrum of leftists who protested the events of Nov7-Dec11 
2000, a much wider spectrum than that which regularly writes for newspoetry, 
read this (not that they, either, have any reason to bother), they might 
react with much nastier responses than what I wrote.  In any case, I can no 
longer feel considerate recommending that they read newspoetry at all.


Here's the letter I received from Joe in response to what I wrote:


>No flames, please.

>You have a perfectly reasonable position that deserves to be heard
>(especially on this list) and then you go and ruin it by appending
>disingenuous insults to it.  The original text was arguably not an
>insult (it was probably just random goofiness), but your note clearly
>is.  Isn't that an example of the within-the-left sniping you're
>complaining about?

>--
>Joe Futrelle
>Editor-within-chief,
>Newspoetry dot com


I don't accept this, Joe.  You are not only the editor of Newspoetry, you 
are one of the authors listed for the phrase "I want a dolly!"  "Arguably 
not an insult" could have been written by any White House staffer.  Yes it 
is an insult!  You have no right as editor or as my friend to not notice 
this, and not think about who might be hurt by it!  I protested, and you 
didn't, and okay that's fine;  you co-wrote and published something that 
says I shouldn't have, that in fact I want flapjacks and a dolly -- well 
forgive me if I don't consider my angry response "sniping", and I certainly 
don't consider it "within-the-left."  "Disingenuous" is a word that should 
be applied to your entire letter, especially to your assertion, to a friend, 
that the hurt inflicted was "probably just random goofiness."  It should NOT 
be applied to what I wrote, which if nothing else was obviously heartfelt.  
(You've known me for 25 years, Joe.  I am trying to think that could mean 
something to you.  Start paying attention, please.)


I want an apology, NOT a smug appraisal that I have a "perfectly reasonable 
position" and NOT the typical liberal LIE that people (you) would be glad to 
listen to me if I was just polite and friendly (to you), but I "ruined" my 
chances for that by failing to be to you what you never tried to be to me.  
Your initial poem wasn't polite or friendly to thousands of activists, one 
of them me.  Your letter isn't, either -- it's administrative and 
self-aggrandizing (what do you mean my position deserves to be heard 
"especially" on your list?  It's already been heard all over the country).  
I'm waiting for the apology for both.




Sam:  therapist and stepfather to some, you have no right or authority to 
say this to me:


>Plus, I found the tone of your email to be rather pouty and juvenile,
>and thus rhetorically wholey inefective if you wanted us to think about
>politics rather than having the focus be on you.


-- particularly from the assumed point of view of a fictional "us" who 
suggests I want you to "think about politics" instead of, god forbid, me.  
Sam:  can't you see I didn't want you to "think about politics", especially 
if all that means is you produce a tedious lecture filled with stuff that 
YOU, SAM, KNOW that I already know!  I wanted you to focus on me!  You hurt 
my feelings BADLY! I'm SURE it was by accident because otherwise I would 
have to imagine that you THOUGHT about my feelings -- and NOW I WANT YOU TO 
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!  You talk all the time about how important 
"community" is to you and your politics!  I AM A MEMBER OF YOUR COMMUNITY!  
I want an apology from you and it should be public, and just for me it would 
be really nice if it was actually sincere and you left Luke Skywalker out of 
it.  Then I'll talk to you about politics.  All right?  Good luck.


Rick
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