The Poet Invokes

I've been like E! News Daily and the Colbert Report these last couple of days: completely ignoring the obvious tragedy.

For no other reason than they did: what does one say that isn't cheesy, diminishing, pedantic?

But I have to say this: the relevance of The Poet was highlighted this week, and--though I'm not of the same poetic field as Giovanni--I couldn't be more proud to call myself a poet.

Who put our tragedy in perspective? Who made us realize the universality of sadness and it's opposite: hope? Who articulated why everyone--throughout the globe--felt for so much those people just trying to 'Be in College'? Who invigorated the crowd? Who roused everyone in that stadium to stand on their feet in the face of adversity and challenge the false depravity of the loner--for who is the poet but a loner? And just as the introverted 'creative writer' violently bullsh1tted his way into the media spotlight and American tragedy with disparately misguided brain functions leading to the grotesquely violent horror of Monday, so the true poet rejuvenated the grieving masses with her rousing, inclusive, INSPIRING finely crafted words:

“We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile. WE are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokier Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail, we will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech. "

And so today, I am prouder than ever to say: I am a poet.

For who better to galvanize and motivate and draw out the pride and love we humans can display than the poet?

I am a poet.

And thank you, nikki g, for reminding all the poets how relevant we are.


(And the crowd rises to its feet to chant with pride...we ARE poets)

The "news" trilogy

Monday through Thursday, if I'm up for it, I watch what I like to call the "news" trilogy: Daily Show, Colbert Report and a flip over to MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olberman.

As soon as I see two snazzily dressed, uber polished automatons standing in front of a graphic design replication of the new Bunker Hill Bridge and talking about a house fire or drunk school bus driver r how the new govinah has messed up again, I say to whomever has the remote, "Can we put it on the real news?" And the channel is changed to Comedy Central.

Indiana Unversity conducted a study that showed the Daily Show actually has as much or more substantial news than network news. (Article from IU).

I oscillate between which show is more entertaining: The Daily Show or the Colbert Report. It is pretty amazing what Stephen Colbert does every single episode. Stewart marveled over Colbert's ability to do improv in real-time as the character of Stephen Colbert, the emulator f Bill O'Reilly. I read this comment in the "Rolling Stone" interview by Maureen Dowd (I was about to say Molly Ivins--I mix up my fiesty liberal redhead reporters, but--as noted in a previous blog--Molly Ivins is no longer with us).

My dream job would be to work on the Colbert Report or the Daily Show. If only I knew someone who knew those guys. Someone who owed me big time for doing something horrible, like dumping me on Valentine's Day.

(Okay, I know it was fourteen years ago and we were only dating for a few weeks, but still. Who does that?)

After my hour of entertainment cum pseudojournalism, I switch over to Countdown with Keith Olberman (YES! Yes! I DO know that he was once on ESPN. Did YOU know that he does a radio sports show with Dan Patrick that airs at 3 PM on AM 620 in Bangor--along with other nationwide cities and towns? See? I know about sports! AND I am a girl! Imagine!)...okay tangential tirade over.

Olberman's format is to countdown the top 5 news stories of the day. He has many guests to extrapolate the situation at hand. He also has regular segments like "Worst Person in the World" and "Oddball." WPW usually involves someone from what Keith likes to call "Fox Noise Channel." The "Oddball" segment has, well, odd things. Usually something from Japan with a skinless cat walking through a waterfall inside a mall or something like that.

When Olberman is out for the night, Alison Stewart hosts instead. I feel like it's 1994 and I'm watching M T V news-you here it (bung da dung dung) first.

So, if you're a hippie like me and you want some lefty news you've got 2 solid hours to kill...blah blah blah.

wait, what's today?

Just kidding! Of course I know what today is:

HAPPY OPENING DAY!!!

Welcome to Friendly Fenway.

In honor of Opening Day, I got out of work early. Well, that's not why, but I'll take it.

So, how is it? It's okay.

It was getting a little boring, winning in such a landslide but then it got all Kung Fu fighting with Guillen and the new Red Sox pitcher (my newest fake husband--he's a combo of my 2 favorite types: guys who wear glasses and guys who have short hair/ shaved head and are buff--I know, I know; I'm a geek), Brendan Donnelly getting in each others' face. After that Donnelly hit Johjima with a pitch and got ejected.

I swear they staged that fight because they could sense viewer boredom.

Anyhoo, Remy's tie is puke on a tie. I hope that was a sentimental gift from a dying fan or something.

Robert Guolet was random.

I am not sure about the replacements for Jerry Trupiano. I must admit, I miss the terrible puns. These other guys, Dan and Glenn, they're okay. I like Glenn more than Dan. Dan sounds very vanilla, very plain and safe. (I sound like an Idol judge.) Glenn's better if not a little bit dorky.

]sigh[

Well, there's plenty of games left to decide.

Tomorrow, Rene and I are going to get sushi in honor of Dice-K. I'm calling it "Dinner for Dice-K."
You can come if you want, too. Just email me. We're going at 8.

Final score: 14 to 3. A very good start to the season.

Intellectual guilt

Every time I write about my love for GH, I feel intellectually guilty for indulging in my braincandy even further than my 3-4 or 10-11 M-F viewing or the post-party 1-6 Sun AM binge.

So, okay, think of something Important and Smart to say...

Um...

I know I know of some important news...Oh, right! Did you hear that Howard K Stern said that he would give over custody of Danni Lynn if Larry Birkhead is the father?

Oh poop. That's not very intellectualist.

How about this, I shall talk about the theatre (and spell theatre the British way):

Mo Rocca will be in the Broadway premier of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," which, due to the theatrical insights of my Uncle Ricky, I have seen while it was up in Boston. You see, Uncle Ricky is the head usher at a theatre in San Fran. The Bee was at that theatre for the longest time (not starring the ubiquitous Mo, yet); therefore, when I talked to Uncle Ricky on Thanksgiving, he recommended the show because it was now in Boston.

By good golly, is it freakin' funny contemporary musical on the trials and tribulations of being a child these days. Adults play in the roles of stereotypical overachieving 8, 9, and 10 years olds. There's the uber-perfect, over-involved, over-extended Asian girl, a hippie homeschool kid, a Jewish boy with a mom, a step-mom and multiple allergies, a pre-pubescent Boy Scout, some other characters (I don't want to give too much away) and a few audience members "compete" for a while. When we went, one woman from the audience did too well. She correctly spelled a word she was supposed to get wrong, so they gave her something like "dimethylbenzenesulfonate," and she almost had it but she forgot the "methyll" part.

Also, I hear they have "dirty words" spelling night, too.

So, now I've talked about theatre, which balances out my General Hospital blogging, not that there's anything wrong with that.

#42- the Cultural Figure story

This Saturday, in the run up to to Jackie Robinson Day on April 15, Jackie Robinson's daughter was interviewed on Weekend Edition Saturday. She told stories about her father, her father's legacy, baseball and civil rights. It was a fantastic interview.

Sharon Robinson on Weekend Edition Saturday.

My favorite part was the story she told about her father leaving the dinner table to take a call from the Little Rock 9, who had called him for inspiration on the day before they went to school. I also found it so inspirationally, humblingly wonderful that he was surprised those brave kids would call him for strength.

This is from the website: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1157/is_4_62/ai_76402508/pg_1

Nevertheless, segregationist sentiment remained strong, and in September 1957, Arkansas governor Orval Faubus barred entry of nine black students into Little
Rock's Central High School despite the existence of an agreed upon school board plan to integrate. On television, Faubus announced that he could not vouch for the safety of the nine if violence arose in protest of their arrival. Faubus told his amazed audience that he therefore planned to call out the Arkansas national guard to turn the students away to avert bloodshed.

The NAACP, the local school board, and federal courts worked to defuse the situation and force compliance, but in the short term, Faubus was successful in doing what he wanted. True to his word, he sent state guardsmen to the high school and posted them to block the entry of the black students. In addition, a large, menacing crowd of white onlookers gathered at the school to ensure that segregation was staunchly upheld. Reluctantly, after several fruitless weeks of negotiation, Eisenhower ordered federal troops into the city and federalized the Arkansas national guard.

The president did not want to take such an extreme measure, but as a former military officer, he knew that such bold resistance to federal authority could not be tolerated if the federal union was to endure. Ironically, this radical step was undertaken by a conservative president who at heart was "a state's righter" who saw only a limited role for the federal government in most racial matters. Initially reluctant to assert federal authority, Eisenhower now was caused by what he termed "extraordinary and compelling circumstances" to mobilize federal troops to defend the rights of black citizens in the South. This was the first time federal troops were used to support black Americans since the days of Reconstruction.

Jackie Robinson had urged the President to act vigorously in this crisis and commended Eisenhower for his ultimate decision to do so. Robinson considered Eisenhower's action an appropriate response to what he charged were massive and illegal efforts by white southerners to resist integration in that region. He and other prominent black Americans wanted strong advocacy from the White House for the civil rights movement and were apprehensive about what they regarded as Eisenhower's unnecessary temporizing. Meanwhile, Eisenhower's advisers urged him to meet with a group of constructive black leaders, which included Robinson, to discuss strategies and policies.

While Robinson applauded the administration's actions in Little Rock in September 1957 to intervene on behalf of the nine black students, the following year in a letter to the President, Robinson chastised Eisenhower for his inaction and calls for black patience. Neither as patient nor as reticent as he appeared to be in his early years in baseball, the ex-ballplayer and social activist was increasingly impatient with what he regarded as Eisenhower's lack of willingness to face up to the hard facts that massive racism still existed in the South. Robinson realized that white racists would do anything to maintain segregation. Segregationists would willfully break laws in a conscious effort to physically intimidate black Americans who insisted on obtaining rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

Tomorrow, I'm finding some books to put on display for Jackie Robinson Day.