May 5, 2008
May 5, 2008
Trade liberty for safety or money and you'll end up with neither. Liberty, like a grain of salt, easily dissolves.
The power of questioning -- not simply believing -- has no friends. Yet liberty depends on it. ***
Note from the Editors:
If you think you've seen and heard enough about Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama, lend us your ear for a moment because on Swans, you can always count on a different perspective from that of the mainstream media. Granted, the Reverend Wright sound bites that are repeated ad nauseam succeed at portraying him as a loon and putting Senator Obama's judgment in question. However, when his comments are taken in context -- both of the entire speech/sermon, and in African-American historical context -- they take on a new meaning. We suggest you study the complete transcript of his talk and interview at the National Press Club, and then read Gilles d'Aymery's analysis of this media attack for a unique perspective that the MSM avoids. Carol Warner Christen's overview of the political process helps to explain why Obama's potential to change the status quo, whether real or imagined, is a threat; and it seemed a fitting time to repost the late Richard Macintosh's excellent essay on democracy...entitled "Delusion." Taking politics to the Wild West, Martin Murie examines the battle over the wolf as predator vs. protected species, where a greater tolerance of our own species is the first order of duty before settling the matter.
This past week was marked by May Day and the 5th anniversary of Mission Accomplished -- Jan Baughman lets out a cry for help as she critiques a typical anti-Iraq editorial that perpetuates the revisionist history of our so-called noble sacrifices, and she shares a few little-discussed facts about the world's single largest consumer of oil. Remember the US-led NATO destruction of Yugoslavia? If not, Michael Pravica's article will educate you on the consequences of our previous "humanitarian" intervention.
Next it's on to France, where Peter Byrne caught the film that's taken the country by storm, Bienvenue chez les Ch'its, and then to Hollywood, where Charles Marowitz has a critical word or two for all those actors-turned-trollops for commercial interests and the deterioration of film and television as an art form. In true form, Mr. Marowitz doesn't mince words. Finally, we land in Tyler, Texas, where Isidor Saslav attended The Eroica Trio's performance of Jay Greenberg's Triple Concerto, and we close in Italy with the haunting poetry of Guido Monte and Francesca Saieva.
As always, please form your OWN opinion, and let your friends (and foes) know about Swans. It's your voice that makes ours grow.
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America: Myths & Realities
Obama's Jeremiads And Wright's Right Rhetoric
On April 29, 2008, Senator Barack Obama denounced the remarks made by his former pastor, Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the previous morning at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. In no uncertain terms, Senator Obama lashed out at Dr. Wright. "I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday," said the senator, adding, "They certainly don't portray accurately my values and beliefs." He went on to cut his ties with the reverend: "...obviously whatever relationship I had with Reverend Wright has changed as a consequence of this." This poignant happenstance, heavily emotionally loaded for both men, was all but inevitable. Whatever the distorted caricature that the corporate media have rehashed for weeks on end it was taking a toll on the Obama campaign. He had to stop the political hemorrhage. Jeff Zeleny and Adam Nagourney of The New York Times summed up the conundrum in one short paragraph: "... In the appearances, Mr. Wright suggested that the United States was attacked because it engaged in terrorism against other people, and that the government was capable of having used the AIDS virus to commit genocide against minorities. His remarks also cast Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, in a positive light." They left out of the mix the "God-damn-America" morsel and, most importantly, the allusion made by Dr. Wright that "Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls. . . . [Obama] does what politicians do." More than anything else the reverend said, that allusion, as well as the defense of Louis Farrakhan, constituted a major threat to the Obama campaign. He had to react even though, as we shall see, the content of Dr. Wright's sermons, lectures, and comments, when taken in context, was not particularly novel and off mark. It's just that they are not supposed to be aired in "good company." More... Gilles d'Aymery is Swans' publisher and co-editor.
The African-American Religious Experience: Theology & Practice
The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the former senior pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois, and the pastor of Barack & Michelle Obama for almost 20 years, discussed the role of faith in the public square at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on April 28, 2008. More... Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. is the senior pastor (Ret.) of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois.
How Many Connections Does It Take?
"Republicrats" is a phrase I like turning over in my mind into various forms, such as, "Republic Rats" and "Rats Who Run the Republic." It works better than Republic Cans because cans don't have legs, legalese teeth, and rarely hide so cleverly. Democ Rats convey little to the imagination; they seem to prefer blending in with power wherever and whenever they can, assuming they exist, since they hide so well behind the other kind. "It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." This quote from my ancestor fits me to a tee. However, I think my matches must be too wet because reading has fallen off drastically in the United States. Every warning I have written falls on deaf ears which are also blind and speechless. More... Carol Christen is a free-thinking Oregonian who minds about the promise of the US Constitution.
Oldies but Goodies: The state of US Democracy
Delusions
(Ed. This piece was originally published on September 22, 2003.)
Using Akhilleus (Achilles) as a starting point, it is a given that politicians are corrupt, prone to lying, and consequently cannot be trusted. Most Americans sense this, but ignore it out of necessity. To face the truth of their leaders' mendacity would dash their hopes and force them to rely on their own abilities, something they doubt possession of and fear to confirm. People would far more prefer to place their hopes on another "bought and paid for" politician in a futile exercise of "democracy," so-called.
Richard Macintosh was a former Public High School Teacher, a part-time consultant on Personnel/Team matters and a regular contributor to Swans. (Richard died of heart failure in June 2005.)
Activism Under the Radar Screen
Wolf
The door opened and the wolf walked in. A big one, white with black markings. We humans, an auditorium full of academics and activists, were absolutely quiet. Soft touches of the wolf's claws on the hardwood floor the only sound. The wolf, on a leash held by its handler, was accustomed to these shows. She had been carefully raised, from birth, in captivity, and yet she retained that wolfish intensity, staring into our faces, locking onto our very eyes, occasionally choosing one face for a longer stare. It was as though we were being judged. More... Martin Murie is a writer and veteran activist.
Iraq: Patterns Which Connect
May Day, M'Aidez
It is was a somber reminder on the 5th anniversary of Mission Accomplished that despite what we who care or dare know about the motives behind the war, the mainstream media continued its revisionist history of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Granted, USA Today is mainstream media lite, but its editorial of that day is not to be taken lightly, as it criticized the "windfall" oil profits that Iraq enjoys while we, the US of A, suffer because of the sacrifices we have made in the name of "fighting, reconstruction and training Iraqi troops." The editorial criticizes Iraq for not "picking up the tab" for the costly, self-serving war in which we are systematically destroying the country. More... Jan Baughman is a clinical researcher and Swans' co-editor.
The Balkans and Yugoslavia
Censorship And The Yugoslav Civil Wars
The Kosovo debacle continues to haunt Western governments, especially the U.S., and has already exacerbated a number of conflicts in Turkey, China, Spain, and the Caucasus regions. The illegal recognition of Kosovo's "independence" by mostly Western nations (less than 40 out of 192) has encouraged terrorists that they can successfully alter the borders of sovereign nations via force. Though the Kosovo case is called "special" by many Western foreign policy "experts," in reality, it is the tremendous misreporting and censorship of the Serbian side of the tragic Yugoslav civil wars which condoned and justified mistreatment of Serbians that is unique and has encouraged Western imperialism elsewhere via the "humanitarian" intervention "concept." More... Michael Pravica is an assistant professor of physics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Arts & Culture
The Real French Warm Their Hearts
In American show-biz parlance, April belongs to Paris. Walking around the city in its quintessential month, you start to wonder where the real French are hiding. An exhibition of André Zucca's photographs at the Paris Historical Library raises the fear that to look too hard for the real item might end in disillusion. He shot the two hundred and seventy color photos under the Nazi occupation; they picture the "animated and gay" Paris that Joseph Goebbels had decreed. Amidst the propaganda you can't but note authentic joy on some of the real French faces. The Germans paid Zucca and gave him rare Agfacolor film but, though arrested after the liberation of 1944, he managed to avoid prosecution. He worked under another name not far from Paris until he died in 1977. More... Peter Byrne is an American-born teacher and writer who lives in Lecce, Italy.
...And Now For A Short Commercial Break
Speaking of whores, the greatest convocation of harlots is to be found not in the red light district of Amsterdam, the alleys around Place Pigalle, or the shadowy streets of Soho, but in the commercial advertisements that harangue us mercilessly every time we turn on the TV. These trollops are drawn from the ranks of actors and actresses who, in return for sizeable paychecks, flock to the country's affluent advertisers in order to simulate being youngsters in love, happily-married elderly couples, resentful cavemen, cockney geckos, or 400-pound gorillas. Prostituting the art of acting, these "performers" are sought out and then cast by advertising executives and their sharp-eyed studio pimps in order to perform 10-, 20-, or 30-second spots that promote the virtues of dating services, dietary transformations, real estate bonanzas, automobiles, hair-tonics, toothpaste, soap, etc., etc., ad infinitum. More... Charles Marowitz is an author of over two dozen books and numerous essays and articles.
The World of Music
Jay Greenberg: A Korngold For Our Times
It's not every day that the world premiere of an extended work of classical music by a nationally recognized composer takes place in, of all places, Tyler, Texas. Well, we had such a premiere in that very city on April 26th when The Eroica Trio (Susie Park, violin, Sara Sant'Ambrogio, cello, Erika Nickrenz, piano) ably assisted by Per Brevig leading the East Texas Symphony Orchestra presented for the first time Jay Greenberg's Triple Concerto for Violin, 'Cello, Piano, and Orchestra. An article about Jay Greenberg, now 17 years old and already having written five full symphonies, usually leads off by comparing him to Mozart. More... Isidor Saslav is a concertmaster who lives with his wife, concert pianist Ann Heiligman Saslav, in Overton, Texas.
Multilingual Poetry
Oltre (Beyond)
Haut mur... high wall is the essence Guido Monte teaches Italian and Latin literature in Palermo, Italy. Francesca Saieva is an adjunct professor at the University of Palermo.
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