Re: Dead Kennedys
by zinya
08/29/2009, 10:34 AM
PR,

As you might recall and MA for sure does, I tend to be interested by political poems ... however, for me that doesn't mean partisan, and i tend to see politics (political reality) in poems that aren't even about politics per se. I'm asking myself here whether I'd be writing this anyway if your poem hadn't included the partisan aspects it has but only still had in it what I hear as an underlying tone of bitterness, and i probably wouldn't. I would probably be quietly wishing for you a relief from bitterness, if that indeed is what it is. But phrases like "over rated outdated misguided conviction" summon up the very rancor that our nation is experiencing this summer in what I can only call, to adopt your words here, "outdated misguided conviction" coming from the 'other side of the aisle' about what Ted Kennedy even stood for. It evokes to me the sloganeering one hears using such scare words as 'socialism' that display fearmongering, not understanding of what is at issue. So it pains me, personally and politically, to read these words. This isn't a politics fray, so I won't go into the specifics of why such a characterization of him is itself a "fiction" and a pumped-up "drama" by those using reductionist slogans that dehumanize and reacting from fear. But it does hurt. You've even tapped in here to the chilling voices of this summer which have gone so far as to call for the deaths of others, including our elected President, in defiance of the democratic process. I'll only say, because I cannot just ignore and walk away from what to me taps into such mischaracterization and let it stand unchallenged, that I have never seen a single political conviction of his that wasn't in the interest of making this a more just nation and society for everyone - and unlike most politicians, he actually translated his into legislation by the bushel that has extended fairness and equality in countless directions. And to me there is nothing over rated or outdated about that. The pain this poem evoked for me is (though I doubt you wish it) for you as well as for my own sense of justice maligned. I also respond because some like myself here are still in mourning for the loss of a rare voice for translating such justice into achievable legislation that we continue to need now as much as ever. I don't expect PoemsFray to engage in such tributes, but I can't stand by either while it is besmirched here.

Wishing you well, PR

z