A Forum for Vigorous Debate, Cornerstone of Democracy

***********************************************************************************************************************************
A FORUM FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND VIGOROUS DEBATE, CORNERSTONES OF DEMOCRACY
[For the journal--guidelines, focus, etc.--go to www.theamericandissident.org. If you have questions, please contact me at todslone@hotmail.com. Comments are NOT moderated (i.e., CENSORED)!]
Encouraged censorship and self-censorship seem to have become popular in America today. Those who censor others, not just self, tend to favor the term "moderate," as opposed to "censor" and "moderation" to "censorship." But that doesn't change what they do. They still act as Little Caesars or Big Brother protectors of the thin-skinned. Democracy, however, demands a tough populace, not so easily offended. On this blog, and to buck the trend of censorship, banning, and ostracizing, comments are NEVER "moderated." Rarely (almost NEVER) do the targets of these blog entries respond in an effort to defend themselves with cogent counter-argumentation. This blog is testimony to how little academics, poets, critics, newspaper editors, cartoonists, political hacks, cultural council apparatchiks, librarians et al appreciate VIGOROUS DEBATE, cornerstone of democracy. Clearly, far too many of them could likely prosper just fine in places like communist China and Cuba or Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Russia, not to mention Sweden, England, and Austria.
ISSUE #47 PUBLISHED MAY 2024. NOW SEEKING SUBMISSIONS FOR ISSUE #48.

More P. Maudit cartoons (and essays) at Global Free Press: http://www.globalfreepress.org

Monday, February 10, 2014

Miciah Gault

.........................................................................................................
The following email was sent to the deaf ears of Vermont College of Fine Arts library director Jim Nolte and the editors of Hunger Mountain.  As predicted, silence...


From: todslone@hotmail.com
To: miciah.gault@vcfa.edu; robin.behn@vcfa.edu; hungermtn@vcfa.edu
CC: jim.nolte@vcfa.edu
Subject: A P. Maudit cartoon featuring Hunger Mountain Magazine
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 11:56:58 -0500

To Editors Miciah Gault and Robin Behn, Hunger Mountain, Vermont College of Fine Arts:

You are both the subject of a new P. Maudit cartoon just posted on The American Dissident website:  http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2014/02/miciah-gault.html
Please feel free to comment, though if you are typical literary editors, you will not comment because you will likely not be at all passionate believers in vigorous debate, cornerstone of democracy.  Here are some questions for you: 

1. Why doesn’t VCFA have a student newspaper?

2. Why does your library director, Gary Nolte, not believe in the spirit of openness and inclusivity, as stipulated in the ALA’s Library Bill of Rights:  “Libraries should challenge censorship […]” and “should provide materials and information presenting all points of view”?

3. Why do both of you not question and challenge dubious distinctions like the one you boast about on your website (i.e., being declared “notable” by Best American Essays series)?  Why do you not wonder who the faceless judges might be and what their prejudices might be?  How did your professors fail you and so many other just-say-ah-and-open-wide poets and writers in that respect?  Is there something intrinsically wrong with the MFA writers program?

4.  Why does VCFA seem closed to dissidence? 

5.  Are these very questions taboo at VCFA? 

SILENCE will be your likely response.

No comments: