Months Later - Curtains Finally Go Up in Connecticut

A story about censorship reported here earlier this year has an upbeat ending. Wilton High School students were finally able to preform their play, "Voices in Conflict" at a nearby theater to a packed house. This following being forbidden by their School principal and District superintendent to do so. After receiving much attention over the matter, the school district’s lawyer ruled that the production could go forward as long as it was not presented as a school-sponsored event.

A standing-room-only audience of 225 people turned out for the 50 minute performance!

Broadcasters Win FCC Expletive Dispute - Forbes.com

Broadcasters Win FCC Expletive Dispute - Forbes.com: "An appeals court said a new federal policy against accidentally aired profanities on TV and radio was invalid, noting that vulgar language had become so common that even President Bush has been heard using expletives.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday in favor of a Fox Television-led challenge to the policy and returned the case to the Federal Communications Commission to let the agency try to explain how its policy was not 'arbitrary and capricious.' The court said it doubted the FCC could."

Nassau County's Loss

When I first heard the news about the controversy over the Nassau County, New York poet laureate position on Monday, I have to say I was extraordinarily angry. The county was poised to name Maxwell Corydon Wheat Jr., it's first poet laureate. But Monday, a county legislative committee voted 6-1 against Wheat when they learned of his 2004 book titled, "Iraq and Other Killing Fields: Poetry for Peace."

Peter J. Schmitt, Republican legislator voiced is objection because he felt that Wheat's book condemned the troops fighting for America in Afghanistan and Iraq. Democrat Wayne Wink was the lone legislator who voted to uphold Wheat's nomination.

Since that time, families too have squared off over the issue. But there has been support for Wheat, even from families who have members serving in Iraq.

Linda Geremia, of South Setauket, NY who has a son serving believe the committee did the right thing.

Nicole Lundin, who lost a son recently however saw not contradiction between supporting the troops and opposing the war. Nor did Elaine Brower, who has a son who served there last year.
And Mary Ann Kochman, also with family in Iraq suspected politicians were more concerned with political cover than with poetic excellence.

I've grown a little less angry over this. The reality is that many people see it for what it is. Short sightedness and as Ms. Kochman put it running for political cover. I believe it was Plato who said,"Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history."

What is sad to me is that Wheat seemed to be an excellent choice. He has written for many years on the natural beauty of the Nassau County region. The people in there will truly miss an opportunity.

There are I suppose always going to be the likes of Peter J. Schmitt, (recipient of my thumbs down award for the day) who are hell bent on defending that which is indefensible. No one I know disrespects the troops and I know precious few people personally who believe this war was ever justified. These young men and women were called upon to serve and (aside from a small handful) have preformed in very difficult circumstances honorably. But they were not the architects of this mistake. The best support was as Americans can give them is to return them safely to their families as quickly as possible.





Sources for this post: here and here

Begin Every Line With Capital Letter

"A prose writer gets tired of writing prose, and wants to be a poet. So he begins every line with a capital letter, and keeps on writing prose." ~ Samuel McChord Crothers

It's Friday, thank God! I have a headache this morning - a recurrence of one from last night in fact. I suspect is is sinus related and it's bad. It is not an attempt at sympathy but an affirmation to myself that today I need to not let things drag me down.

I have a Writers Conference tonight and tomorrow to look forward to. It appears that most of it is directed towards prose and not poetry though there is one session that is on poetry. That said, I chuckle at today's quote above.

Now some odds and ends...

• A big thumbs up for the House and Senate making a firm statement on the War in Iraq in spite of Bush's threat to veto the bill.
• Rudy Giuliani flip-flops on civil union laws. Geeze, is he running for President or something?
• Former CIA Director George J. Tenet accuses the White House of making him a scapegoat and of ignoring early CIA warnings that Iraq was sinking into chaos. Tenet also leveled criticism at Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying that the two had destroyed his reputation by repeatedly using the "slam-dunk" line to pin blame on him for the decision to go to war.
• Franz Wright is a poet whose work I have admired. Here is an interesting interview of the son of poet James Wright. Both by the way are Pulitzer Prize winners. I love the story of the note from his father, I had heard it prior to reading this piece.
• So who is author Anne Lamott reading?
• Tombstone case may bury free speech.

Drama Students Students at Wilton High Commended by Music Theatre International

The saga of Wilton High School's "Voices of Courage" continues. A Broadway musical licensing agency that has been around since 1952, has created a special award to recognize Wilton High School drama students for writing a play on the Iraq war that school school official have blocked from production.

It is not uncommon for the company to give awards to school theater departments for singing, dancing, directing and stage design."However, we are aware that theater is not just about acting, singing, dancing and excelling in performance," says a letter to the students from the company."It is also about positive risk taking for students, working as a community and utilizing theater skills, to present points of view on the stage which comment on the world in which we live."

School principal Timothy H Canty and School Superintendent Gary Richards have censored the production, not only disallowing it on campus, but off campus as well.

Misc on my mind

From my deck this morning, the ornamental tree that rises next to it is praising spring.

A few items of note:

Let me add Wilton Public Schools Superintendent Gary Richards to my 5 thumbs down award for his part in the Wilton High School cancellation of Voices In Conflict. [see earlier post] It appears that Richards along with school principal Timothy H. Canty were both in decision making roles with respect to cancelling this performance by students.

I have taken the dive into NaPoWriMo / a poem a day for thirty days in April.

Yesterday, I read Autobiography and Poetry in Slate. Dan Chiassonto and Meghan O'Rourke tackle confessional or autobiographical poetry, or if you will, the presumptive reader in some cases. I found the commentary between these two (if it really happened) to be thought provoking. Both making interesting points. Wonder what others are thinking out this piece? I'm going to sit on my thoughts for the time being. Anyone else who read it wanna share?

Play About Iraq War Divides a Connecticut School - New York Times

Play About Iraq War Divides a Connecticut School - New York Times

Natalie Kropf, 18, Seth Koproski, 17, Devon Fontaine, 16, and James Presson, 16, are students at Wilton High School in Wilton, Connecticut. Timothy H. Canty is the principal at Wilton High. These are a few principal players in an off stage drama about an on stage drams, "Voices in Conflict."

Wilton students in an advanced acting class were taking on the challenge of creating an original play about the war in Iraq. Last week, principal Timothy H. Canty canceled a play to be put on by the school's advanced theater class citing questions of political balance and context. Efforts were made to make some concessions in the script by the students. Even the thought of doing the performance off campus at night was out. Students say Canty had indicated that the material was too inflammatory, and that only someone who had actually served in the war could understand the experience. “He told us the student body is unprepared to hear about the war from students, and we aren’t prepared to answer questions from the audience and it wasn’t our place to tell them what soldiers were thinking,” said Sarah Anderson, a 17-year-old senior.

Two things come to my mind about this story....

• From a purely artistic point of view, principal Timothy Canty is way out of line. I'd have to give him my tops of 5 thumbs down for censorship of a piece of creative work by students that no doubt took significant commitment on their part. Perhaps (and sadly) their greatest learning experience from all this is the distaste for censorship in art when they could have been taking away more positive life experiences.
• Outside my artistic mode, I have to again give Mr. Canty my maximum 5 thumbs down for like many, sticking there head in the sand (I had another place in mind) with respect (and I emphasise the "R" word here) to treating these students in such a demeaning manner. Students like Natalie Kropf are old enough to be serving in Iraq, and of course many other students are not far behind. Why hide in the safety of comfort and pretend this war in not in the room. It is a fucking elephant he wants to pretend it is not there. Gives these students a lot of credit for wanting to undertake this and ask the hard questions that too many adults in this country are afraid to ask. Maybe if people had asked more questions earlier and engaged in meaningful dialogue there would not be 3234 U.S. serviceman dead and we would not have spent $410 billion plus on a war the has no end in sight. A war that has left deep divisions and civil-war strife between the Iraqi people themselves. Give these you people a little respect. We ask them to fight our wars, don't talk down to them like we know what we are doing. If we did, things would be a lot different after four years.