The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them how they dared so roundly to assert that God spake to them; and whether they did not think at the time that they would be misunderstood, & so be the cause of imposition.
Isaiah answer'd: "I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in every thing, and as I was then perswaded & remain confirm'd, that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for consequences, but wrote." —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Greetings from the far left coast where someone has a birthday coming up in a few days. Twenty years ago I wrote a poem titled On the Approach of My Fiftieth Birthday. Not that I thought, oh, number fifty coming up, I should write a poem. The words appeared at the desk one day and I wrote. Ten years later I recalled the earlier poem and set out to write On the Approach of My Sixtieth Birthday. Both poems turned out okay.
Poems do not come as readily or often as they once did. The poems that do come may be better for that. There is in them more looking back than there is looking ahead. The theme of the upcoming birthday lends itself to looking back, trips down memory lane that I hope amount to more than mere indulgence in nostalgia as I reflect and take stock in the ongoing project of becoming who I am.
I am less than diligent about preserving drafts and versions of a poem in progress. The seventieth-birthday poem is not one that just poured out from some fount of inspiration. The muse can be as fickle as she is flirtatious. This one came in fits and starts with any number of digressions that turned into dead ends and much revision of what remained. The earliest lines I can find in the yellow writing pads I use at the outset of a project are dated June 27. The first typed version, hardly a version, barely a beginning, a few lines, is dated July 6. The completed poem as it now stands was published here at Portable Bohemia yesterday. Readers may find the accompanying notes for the Little 5 Points section of the poem of interest.
My friend Sharmagne Leland-St. John, founder and editor-in-chief of Quill & Parchment, has some surgery scheduled for August 17. Our thoughts and best wishes go out to her.
The FBI's search of Trump's palace at Mar-at-Lago dominated the week's news. I have little to add beyond the question we are all asking: Mother of mercy—is this the end of Rico? I mean, is this end of Trump-o? I fear not, but hope springs infernal.
Republicans immediately circled the wagons in their supreme leader's defense. That became more problematic when DOJ documents related to the search were unsealed, although that did not deter Marjorie Taylor Greene from drafting articles of impeachment against Merrick Garland (Herb Scribern, Marjorie Taylor Greene drafts articles, Axios, August 13, 2022). Democrats have generally gone counter to their customary script and wisely kept a low profile.
For readers with access to The Washington Post, this article is good background: Josh Dawsey, S. Helderman, Jacqueline Alemany, Devlin Barrett, Trump’s secrets: How a records dispute led the FBI to search Mar-a-Lago, August 13, 2022.
What began as a low-level dispute over the Trump White House’s chaotic and haphazard record-keeping had morphed into a deeply serious probe of whether the ex-president had endangered national security by hoarding highly classified documents, some potentially related to nuclear weapons.
On August 4 the human rights organization Amnesty International issued a press release alleging Ukrainian violations of international humanitarian law by placing military bases close to civilian infrastructure, schools, hospitals, apartment buildings and the like, which puts civilians at risk. The press release precipitated near instantaneous blowback sufficient to prompt Amnesty to issue a follow-up on August 7 that satisfied few who found the first release objectionable.
Oksana Pokalchuk, a Ukrainian lawyer and human rights activist who had been executive director of the Ukrainian office of Amnesty International since 2016, resigned on August 5. Pokalshuk explained her resignation in a column at The Washington Post:
The report triggered a wave of public outrage worldwide and across Ukraine. For me, the report’s deepest flaw was how it contradicted its main objective: Far from protecting civilians, it further endangered them by giving Russia a justification to continue its indiscriminate attacks. (What Amnesty got wrong in Ukraine and why I had to resign, August 13, 2022)
Amnesty's intent to shed light on wrongdoing by Ukrainian forces and to hold those responsible to account is not at issue. The Amnesty documents are sketchy on detail and context and suggest moral equivalence between the invader and the people invaded. The authors appear to be indifferent to the consequences of their report for a country defending itself against an unprovoked assault by a larger, more powerful neighbor. References to Russian crimes amount to little more than token gestures to provide cover for the organization. Though issued under the imprimatur of impartiality, the documents are a gift for Russian propaganda.
I have been a member of Amnesty International since 1987. After taking a few days to reflect on Amnesty's allegations and the reaction to them, I decided on August 12 to end my membership, which I communicated to Amnesty with an email explaining my reasons for doing so. The following day I received a reply from member services with the following statement:
It’s our job to share our findings impartially, but what we do matters just as much as how we do it. We assure you of our shared commitment to undertake any reforms that will help us rise to the challenges of responding far more effectively to the turbulent environment in which we must honor our commitment to defend human rights.
The tone suggests this commitment is made earnestly and in good faith. Perhaps I should have simply expressed my objections while remaining a member of an organization whose mission I still support. I was moved to end my affiliation because the exceptional nature of circumstances in Ukraine dictated a stronger response.
Cathy Young at The Bulwark provides a good analysis of the incident and its implications in What’s Behind Amnesty International’s Victim-Blaming in Ukraine?
Today's remarks cannot pass without noting and condemning the vicious attack on Salman Rushdie. On Friday evening his agent reported that Rushdie was on a ventilator and could not speak, was likely to lose an eye, nerves in his arm were severed, and his liver was stabbed and damaged. By Saturday he was reportedly off the ventilator and talking. (Jacob Knutson, Author Salman Rushdie attacked on stage in New York, Axios, updated August 13, 2022; Associated Press, Rushdie reportedly off ventilator and talking, Politico, August 14, 2022).
Threats to freedom of speech and thought come in many forms. They are not restricted to the physical violence directed against Salman Rushdie. Nor are they solely the doing of religious extremists, nor of any political party, faction, or school of thought. The outpouring of support for Rushdie is welcome. We can hope that those expressing it will continue to speak out for freedom of speech and thought on other occasions where it might require greater courage to do so.
The only safe space that is needed at university is the space in which all ideas can be discussed, because if you can’t do that, then there is no such thing as a university.
—Salman Rushdie
New blog post: The Search at Mar-a-Lago Palace. August 9, 2022. The FBI search of the Trump palace at Mar-a-Lago has prompted some interesting propositions of a political and legal nature. The distinguished solon from SC Lindsey Graham, writing at the equally distinguished forum for scholarly discourse and disputation Twitter…read more>>
Keep the faith.
Stand with Ukraine.
yr obdt svt
Pictured below: Matthews bros, July 21, 2022
