tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2395698626795280672024-03-05T06:52:03.599-08:00The American DissidentA Journal of Literature, Democracy, and DissidenceG. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.comBlogger612125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-70611419795546725812023-12-10T18:17:00.000-08:002023-12-10T18:19:45.076-08:00Poets & Writers<p> </p><p>The following counter-editorial was written in 2020. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>I, Poet Apostate</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>A Critique of a Sad, Highly Predictable Editorial</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In lockstep is the evident modus operandi of <i>Poets & Writers </i>magazine. If in lockstep, you might get published/promoted/publicized in that periodical. Out of lockstep, like me, and you will likely be blacklisted by it. As an obvious arm of the academic/literary establishment, <i>Poets & Writers</i> encourages groupthink, certainly not individualthink! </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“<a href="https://www.pw.org/about-us/news-releases/poets_writers_stands_in_solidarity_with_the_black_community"><span style="color: #0000e9;">Poets & Writers Stands in Solidarity With the Black Community</span></a>," the editorial in question, is an unoriginal echo of those afflicted with white-guilt and successfully indoctrinated in the black good/white bad narrative. Was George Floyd really a heroic figure, who had cleaned up his criminal past to lead an honorable present? For a factual analysis regarding the BLM martyr meme, examine <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/06/candace-owens-video-i-do-not-support-george-floyd-frontpagemagcom/"><span style="color: #0000e9;">www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/06/candace-owens-video-i-do-not-support-george-floyd-frontpagemagcom/</span></a>. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Elliot Figman, Executive Director, and Amy Berkower, President of the Board of Directors, both white, wrote the vapid, virtue-signaling editorial. Regarding the title of the editorial, did they discuss whether or not to use “take a knee” instead of “stand in”? Clearly, they and their magazine serve one purpose: the monetization—cooptation and castration—of poetry and writing. In essence, they and their magazine serve as an ideologically-driven <i>Pravda</i> for the poetry and writing industry. They are not courageous individuals; they are cowardly conformists. Is that what poets and writers should be today? Apparently so. Poets and writers must think CAREER, not bold TRUTH-TELLING—the two can never go together. To do that, they must conform to the reigning ideology in much the same way that poet Gorky, who praised the gulags, had done in the former Soviet Union. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In their editorial, the authors, unoriginally, call for “an end to systemic racism.” But is there really “systemic racism” in America today, or is that simply a mindless talking point of the indoctrinated? Has not Affirmative Action accorded blacks privilege over whites? Why is the accusation of “systemic racism” rarely, if ever at all, supported with factual evidence and statistics? Are inconvenient facts and statistics now simply (simple-mindedly) dismissed as right-wing, Nazi, racist, white nationalist talking points? ALL the evidence should be examined, not just evidence that supports the narrative! “<a href="https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/06/truth-about-interracial-violent-crime-john-perazzo/"><span style="color: #0000e9;">The Truth about Interracial Violent Crime</span></a>” and "<a href="https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/06/truth-about-police-violence-and-race-john-perazzo/"><span style="color: #0000e9;">The Truth About Police Violence and Race</span></a>" present some rather inconvenient (i.e., against the narrative) statistics. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“These killings come during a pandemic that disproportionately afflicts communities of color,” state the authors. Again, no statistics needed when in lockstep with the narrative. The authors do not even address precisely how the virus is somehow in cahoots with “systemic racism.” Are black rioters and looters not social distancing, while somehow white rioters and looters are? Many possible reasons likely exist if indeed blacks are afflicted more than whites. Proclaiming “systemic racism” does not explain everything, and yet for those making the proclamation somehow it does, especially in the Age of Ideology, which has evidently replaced the Age of Reason. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“That members of these same communities [i.e., POC communities] are disproportionately risking their lives as essential workers only adds to the outrage,” argue the authors again without an iota of statistical support to back the assertion! Perhaps we have now also entered the Age of Groupthink Writing. “At Poets & Writers, we are reflecting on how to respond to these injustices. This begins with the acknowledgement that, although we have a diverse staff, most of our leaders and Board members are white,” state the authors. But why should the right skin color be more important than courageous truth telling, black or white-skinned? Rare truth-tellers, black or white-skinned, who question and challenge those of the in-lockstep herd, are far more interested in speaking the “rude truth” than holding on to their writing careers. “I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions,” declared Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Every decent and well-spoken individual affects and sways me more than is right. I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways.” Well, clearly <i>Poets & Writers</i> is one of those “dead institutions” and definitely “capitulates to badges and names”! </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“Our silence [regarding alleged racism] has compromised our mission,” state the authors. “We serve writers because<b> </b>they help us understand ourselves and our times, deepen our capacity for empathy, and imagine a better future.” And yet the writers they tend to publish serve them and their writing industry. “A better future”? A future of what? More groupthink? More groupchant? More in lockstep? More white-shaming and more black victimization? Sounds like a nightmare! </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“To accomplish our mission, we must heighten our understanding of the unique struggles that Black writers face in the publishing industry and literary world due to racism and implicit bias,” argue the authors. And yet always there are black-skinned writers featured in <i>Poets & Writers</i> magazine. Never are there counter-narrative rude truth-telling writers! How does that constitute “unique struggles” by black writers “in the publishing industry and literary world”? America has had black poet laureates, black prize-winning writers, and black university writing professor racists. Cite laureates Rita Dove, Maya Angelou, Robert Hayden, Joy Harjo, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Derek Walcott, etc. But then there’s the confession: “most of our leaders and Board members are white.”</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So, why then haven’t the two white authors, Figman and Berkower, volunteered to step down, so that two black-skinned people, competent or incompetent (“What difference does it make?”), can take their places? Money! </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“Poets & Writers is committed to becoming an anti-racist organization that models the principles of equity and inclusion,” contend the two authors. Sadly, equity in today’s PC-Orwellian world means inequity, while inclusion means exclusion. Certainly, I have been excluded from commenting by the <i>P&W</i> equity and inclusion censors! Ah, but I am white, therefore insignificant in the new age of skin-color is more important than anything else. Nevertheless, I, poet apostate, dare choose TRUTH over career, TRUTH over skin-color predilection, and TRUTH over publication in <i>Poets & Writers</i> magazine. Now, would the latter publish this counter op-ed as an opportunity for debate? Will it even respond to it? The likelihood of that is close to nil… and that in a nutshell is the crux of the <i>P&W</i> problem, not a paucity of correct skin color on its Board of Directors…</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">..............................</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>From:</b> George Slone</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, June 9, 2020 7:09 PM</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>To:</b> elliot@pw.org <elliot@pw.org>; aberkower@writershouse.com <aberkower@writershouse.com></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Cc:</b> editor@pw.org <editor@pw.org></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Subject:</b> Your astonishing editorial</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To Executive Director Elliot Figman and President of the Board of Directors Amy Berkower, as well as Editor in Chief Kevin Larimer, Senior Editor Melissa Faliveno, Assoc. Ed. Dana Isokawa, Poets & Writers Inc.: </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Below is my counter-essay vis-a-vis your astonishing editorial. Please publish it in the next issue of <i>Poets & Writers</i>. If not, then I shall try other literary brick walls. Please do let me know of your decision. Thank you for your attention.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Sincerely, </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.1px; text-indent: -0.1px;">G. Tod Slone (PhD—Université de Nantes, FR), aka P. Maudit, Founding Editor (1998)<span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><br />
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</span>todslone@hotmail.com<span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><br />
</span>217 Commerce Rd.<span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><br />
</span>Barnstable, MA 02630</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.1px; text-indent: -0.1px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262524; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.1px; text-indent: -0.1px;">NO RESPONSE!</p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-74279801071604125282023-10-31T05:11:00.057-07:002023-11-10T04:39:27.790-08:00Fostering Students' Free Expression<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Below is the front cover and editorial of the latest issue of <i>The American Dissident</i>, Issue #46, inspired by <i>The Chronicle of Higher Education.</i> Both were sent to the editors, depicted on the cover. Unsurprisingly, not one of them deigned to respond... </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLBdYRweDmX7_88UHX__45SsvZmbD1D6GYbYvPLuYvshjWOR2XuMVjMd4_x8iEKHsjG6wU7mP-qbl-TzulnJET1ikrsaduyVcWi5GgSogx_rbZ-Mot1fE4Me8feAOC6QCBMelBSOrcpLsDg4gLpMPqf0mDGkhFbSzQVPielkfygFPc7vPEWYgsHfwMzza5/s3400/AD%2046%20Front%20Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3400" data-original-width="2220" height="985" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLBdYRweDmX7_88UHX__45SsvZmbD1D6GYbYvPLuYvshjWOR2XuMVjMd4_x8iEKHsjG6wU7mP-qbl-TzulnJET1ikrsaduyVcWi5GgSogx_rbZ-Mot1fE4Me8feAOC6QCBMelBSOrcpLsDg4gLpMPqf0mDGkhFbSzQVPielkfygFPc7vPEWYgsHfwMzza5/w643-h985/AD%2046%20Front%20Cover.jpg" width="643" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">........................................................</span></div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Papyrus; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Editorial</p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Censorship Now!</b></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Freedom of Expression… in Higher Ed</b></p>
<p style="font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Unfortunately, tenure has led to the ossification of American education. The hiring, promotion, and tenure system has institutionalized sycophancy toward those in power. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="text-shadow: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">—Camille Paglia, Tenured Professor, University of the Arts</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 10px; text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="font-family: Verdana; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">The rise of hate speech threatens… or so they say. But what is hate speech?… or so they don’t say. Well, criticism is/can be hate speech. So, I say, let hate speech rise! Banning it is an act of censorship and a violation of the First Amendment. Banning serves to kill inconvenient truths, hurtful to hacks with thin skin, haters themselves who hate freedom of expression. “Censorship now!” would be a slogan too truthful, too transparent. And so the haters supplant it with calls to remove disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation… </p>
<p style="font-family: Verdana; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span> <span> </span></span>Searching for some grist, I came across an ad (see <a href="https://store.chronicle.com/products/fostering-students-free-expression?variant=42345778348229?cid=cs-che-cdp-2022-section-front-footer-11">store.chronicle.com/products/fostering-students-free-expression?variant=42345778348229?cid=cs-che-cdp-2022-section-front-footer-11</a>) in the <i>Chronicle of Higher Education</i> for a book written and published by the <i>Chronicle of Higher Education</i>. The front cover of this issue, “The Chronicle of Higher Indoctrination,” thus resulted. Since the author of the book description was not indicated, I depicted the top honchos of the publication, Editor-in-Chief Michael G. Riley, as well as a few of the other editors and managers (see <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/page/contact-us">www.chronicle.com/page/contact-us</a>). </p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-shadow: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> How not to question the very title, <i>Fostering Students’ Free Expression</i>. A thinking individual might actually wonder how college professors and administrators might serve to foster that when they themselves have an overwhelming tendency to self-censor. In fact, how might the very editors of the <i>Chronicle</i> do that when no doubt their rise to the top demanded turning a blind eye and team playing, certainly not individual rude-truth telling. Career success (climbing the ladder), in general, depends on such behavior. Evidently, speaking truth and career success do not make good partners. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-shadow: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> <span> </span>The book in question is digital and contains 74 pages and was published in September 2023 and also does not list an author. It costs a mind-boggling $179. Might that really be for only one digital copy? The <i>Chronicle</i> states: “<a href="https://connect.chronicle.com/CHE-SL-WR-2021-Site-License-Quote-Request_LP-Contact-us-2?cid=FosteringStudentsFreeExpression"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; text-shadow: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0) 1px 1px 1px;">Learn more</span></a> about digital licensing options and request a quote. For group purchases of fewer than 100 users, please refer to our <a href="https://store.chronicle.com/pages/bulk-and-institutional-sales"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; text-shadow: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0) 1px 1px 1px;">bulk pricing</span></a>." </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-shadow: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">n any case, according to the anonymous ad writer, “The pandemic made students feel more isolated and vulnerable. Unending political turmoil has left them frustrated.” Well, how about the profs and administrators? “Many professors say that students are reluctant to tackle tough questions in classroom discussions, and a 2022 survey by Heterodox Academy found that the majority of students who are timid when it comes to sharing opinions in class said they worried about the reactions they might get from peers.” Couldn’t one say the same for the profs and administrators, and if not, why not? After all, conformity is a synonym for team playing, which tends to be obligatory in higher ed. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-shadow: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> <span> <span> </span></span>The description praises professors as “cultivating an environment that encourages discussion of difficult topics—and how administrators can support faculty members who do this work.” Difficult topics, eh? Might they include the higher ed ambiance that encourages team playing at the expense of truth telling and the reality of general professorial apathy to freedom of expression when ideology (e.g., DEI and CRT) demands it? Well, I sent this editorial and the front cover image to the editor/managers in question and asked them to consider publishing both as an example of their purported support for freedom of expression. No response was ever received. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-shadow: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span> T</span>he back cover of this issue, “The Business of Writing,” depicts two GrubStreet leaders, Artistic Director Dariel Suarez and Founder/Executive Director Eve Bridburg. Waiting for my car inspection, I went through the magazines, leafed through<i> Bostonia</i>, the Alumni Magazine of Boston University. “Big Moves at GrubStreet,” written by Grub publicist Joel Brown, grabbed my attention. It focused on Grub's “gleaming new home on the Seaport.” Of course, everything in alumni magazines tends to be glowing wonderment. “GrubStreet always had a sense of inclusion from the very beginning [in 1997],” noted Bridburg, “and we’re trying to create something that is more welcoming, less paternalistic, and more inclusive.” How original! Inclusion! But, of course, NOT inclusion regarding criticism of GrubStreet! “It isn’t just about bringing people in, ‘this is gonna step up our numbers.’ It’s about following through, even in the growth of our staff,” stated Suarez. But perhaps writing should be about truth and free expression, not about increasing numbers. GrubStreet’s website echoes the overwhelming business/money and identity politics aspects of the writing industry today (see <a href="https://grubstreet.org/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; text-shadow: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0) 1px 1px 1px;">grubstreet.org/</span></a>). </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-shadow: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span> <span> </span>A </span>final comment: The hate-speech attack on free speech has become an establishment weapon of the ruling oligarchy to further We, the In-Lockstep People. Biden failed to embed his Orwellian Disinformation Governance Board into the bureaucracy. But CISA (Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency) has existed since 2018. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 69.8px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-shadow: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">CISA defines mis-, dis-, and malinformation (MDM) as “information activities.” This type of content is referred to as either domestic or foreign influence depending on where it originates.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 69.8px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-shadow: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">• Misinformation is false, but not created or shared with the intention of causing harm.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 69.8px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-shadow: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">• Disinformation is deliberately created to mislead, harm, or manipulate a person, social group, organization, or country.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 69.8px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-shadow: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">• Malinformation is based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-shadow: 1.0px 1.0px 1.0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> And so, facts must be destroyed if they harm. P. Maudit cartoons are clear examples of malinformation because they openly seek to harm, via facts and logic, buffered cogs of the establishment. How many more terms will be created by Big Gov/Academe in an effort to kill truth and free expression and further control We, the People? Sadly, America is following the European Union in that oligarchic endeavor. Democracy—freedom of speech—is dying, which is why I continue to speak/write rudely and openly. Inevitably, one day in the near future, in America, a journal like <i>The American Dissident</i> will not simply be ostracized—excluded from library shelves and listings of journals (NewPages and P&W)—, but will be strictly prohibited and forced into the realm of samizdat… </span></p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-30329281453769551852023-08-15T05:29:00.002-07:002023-08-15T05:29:16.618-07:00Daniel F. Mahony<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeoUooYpx9j47ve3o4-IR3rE5hHPy5PQ49obzjRj3x-4Qxul10Eb_dXNXjwFRdhb_hltFc7modrFsm5SiruHKSSsO1J6MO4DRR9S-F2viWDEdeJxtI7jMPM4CResPZns1dIfAKt43-b3Cj1lqEzjY2kpbInHvXnTL4jOMMKBhj5AC7LuQb8H3fHYutn7HI/s2487/Southern%20Illinois%20U-Dan%20Malony.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2487" data-original-width="1737" height="804" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeoUooYpx9j47ve3o4-IR3rE5hHPy5PQ49obzjRj3x-4Qxul10Eb_dXNXjwFRdhb_hltFc7modrFsm5SiruHKSSsO1J6MO4DRR9S-F2viWDEdeJxtI7jMPM4CResPZns1dIfAKt43-b3Cj1lqEzjY2kpbInHvXnTL4jOMMKBhj5AC7LuQb8H3fHYutn7HI/w560-h804/Southern%20Illinois%20U-Dan%20Malony.jpg" width="560" /></a></div><br /><p></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-64593809758025634452023-07-23T09:49:00.001-07:002023-07-23T09:49:19.996-07:00Jeffrey Sachs<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC2E6WNL0PoP3EAk2ekxwdng3WVdMk_Hjp5pyDH5Ioj_8Zkx_Dtg5L27LJAtVaPZVNstVpPIxWss_FBcuQ14SzO0ddWD7q-LUPD1U8R7rLS4qgS8biPM-GP4im96MJL8Yu2MfN3y1Zd0RS7K5UDiiV2k9lkaY6cKIxLcNOx2wEBKrcBetKe9mZ18n0uPE8/s11687/Acadia%20Univ-Jeffrey%20Sachs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="11537" data-original-width="11687" height="577" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC2E6WNL0PoP3EAk2ekxwdng3WVdMk_Hjp5pyDH5Ioj_8Zkx_Dtg5L27LJAtVaPZVNstVpPIxWss_FBcuQ14SzO0ddWD7q-LUPD1U8R7rLS4qgS8biPM-GP4im96MJL8Yu2MfN3y1Zd0RS7K5UDiiV2k9lkaY6cKIxLcNOx2wEBKrcBetKe9mZ18n0uPE8/w585-h577/Acadia%20Univ-Jeffrey%20Sachs.jpg" width="585" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">...................................</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>From:</b> George Slone</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, December 3, 2022 8:00 AM</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>To:</b> jeffrey.sachs@acadiau.ca <jeffrey.sachs@acadiau.ca></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Subject:</b> Your FIRE article</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"> </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To Jeffrey Sachs, Professor of Politics, Acadia University:</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Well, I spent most of my working life as a failed academic… and I’d have it no other way. In each institution employing me, I spoke rude truth openly. And of course each institution eliminated me for doing so. FIRE never did help me in my diverse higher ed battles. Hell, I even battle way back when with its founder. </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In any case, your FIRE criticism, “<a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/everyones-wrong-about-fire"><span style="color: #0000e9;">Everyone’s Wrong About FIRE</span></a>," was interesting and perhaps unusual too. Keep in mind that the Chronicle of Higher Education is itself an organization that censors unwanted opinions. It certainly will NOT publish anything I send it. Yes, I have been openly critical of its editors.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Anyhow, I would add to your FIRE critique several thoughts.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If a college has a green light FIRE designation, that is essentially de jura. The de facto reality might of course be quite different. Another FIRE problem is that the organization does not address criticism with its regard. It certainly has not addressed my criticisms (see attached cartoons, for example). </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For your chuckle, I attach my CM. Imagine if I’d sent it to your university, for example. The fundamental problem with academics is quite simple: Career vs. Truth.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Anyhow, I enjoyed visiting Grand Pre on several different occasions and visit NS several times per year on my way to NL. </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Au plaisir,</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">G. Tod Slone (PhD—Université de Nantes, FR), aka P. Maudit, Founding Editor (1998)</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The American Dissident</i>, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">www.theamericandissident.org</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0000e9; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/">wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com</a></span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;"> </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0000e9; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="mailto:todslone@hotmail.com">todslone@hotmail.com</a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">217 Commerce Rd.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Barnstable, MA 02630</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;">{No Response]</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>From:</b> George Slone</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, December 3, 2022 8:00 AM</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>To:</b> jeffrey.sachs@acadiau.ca <jeffrey.sachs@acadiau.ca></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Subject:</b> Your FIRE article</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To Jeffrey Sachs, Professor of Politics, Acadia University:</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Well, I spent most of my working life as a failed academic… and I’d have it no other way. In each institution employing me, I spoke rude truth openly. And of course each institution eliminated me for doing so. FIRE never did help me in my diverse higher ed battles. Hell, I even battle way back when with its founder. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In any case, your FIRE criticism, “<a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/everyones-wrong-about-fire"><span style="color: #0000e9;">Everyone’s Wrong About FIRE</span></a>," was interesting and perhaps unusual too. Keep in mind that the Chronicle of Higher Education is itself an organization that censors unwanted opinions. It certainly will NOT publish anything I send it. Yes, I have been openly critical of its editors.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Anyhow, I would add to your FIRE critique several thoughts.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If a college has a green light FIRE designation, that is essentially de jura. The de facto reality might of course be quite different. Another FIRE problem is that the organization does not address criticism with its regard. It certainly has not addressed my criticisms (see attached cartoons, for example). </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For your chuckle, I attach my CM. Imagine if I’d sent it to your university, for example. The fundamental problem with academics is quite simple: Career vs. Truth.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Anyhow, I enjoyed visiting Grand Pre on several different occasions and visit NS several times per year on my way to NL. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Au plaisir,</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">G. Tod Slone (PhD—Université de Nantes, FR), aka P. Maudit, Founding Editor (1998)</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The American Dissident</i>, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">www.theamericandissident.org</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0000e9; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/">wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com</a></span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0000e9; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="mailto:todslone@hotmail.com">todslone@hotmail.com</a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">217 Commerce Rd.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Barnstable, MA 02630</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">[No response]</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #151515; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p></div><p><br /></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-44105754720472410492023-07-04T05:35:00.002-07:002023-07-04T05:35:43.088-07:00Poet Laureate Ada Limon<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Below is the front cover of the latest issue of <i>The American Dissident</i>, #45, published/distributed in May 2023. Per usual, I sent it to those targeted in the sketch. Normally, silence is golden for those (cogs of the establishment) who hate debate (i.e., democracy). Surprisingly, I received one response, though it was not an intelligent one. For the brief correspondence, see below.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">.............................................................................</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS08aFtkpqZHVNsBUL9uSqvxMgLTrSFBA8BKcYKXBsAMueY5OWn9OsWn6Je-BN64j75ohCdVdBcdP_G-U3o0rieGysQQ5LkIL8S2AkKa1Vck6rFn0o9rEskhVArh6kmrmqtEtDw5JjX912N5J2EJd5kbTwDE1oYDBMlyAKVsmoHJRXdMkq0M3n_1Iw90W4/s1579/AD45-Front%20Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1579" data-original-width="1032" height="893" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS08aFtkpqZHVNsBUL9uSqvxMgLTrSFBA8BKcYKXBsAMueY5OWn9OsWn6Je-BN64j75ohCdVdBcdP_G-U3o0rieGysQQ5LkIL8S2AkKa1Vck6rFn0o9rEskhVArh6kmrmqtEtDw5JjX912N5J2EJd5kbTwDE1oYDBMlyAKVsmoHJRXdMkq0M3n_1Iw90W4/w583-h893/AD45-Front%20Cover.jpg" width="583" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">...............................................................................</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p style="background-color: white; color: #4c4c4c; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">May 13, 2023, 7:05 AM</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">To Rigoberto Gonzalez,</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Attached is a satirical aquarelle front cover depicting you and a few others. Why not expose your students to it? Hell, if you did that you wouldn't be a typical academic hack...</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Au plaisir,</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">G. Tod Slone (PhD—Université de Nantes, FR), aka P. Maudit, Founding Editor (1998)</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The American Dissident</i>, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #103cc0; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.theamericandissident.org/"><span style="font-family: arial;">www.theamericandissident.org</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #103cc0; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: arial;">wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #103cc0; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="mailto:todslone@hotmail.com"><span style="font-family: arial;">todslone@hotmail.com</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">217 Commerce Rd.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Barnstable, MA 02630</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #4c4c4c; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">May 23, 2023, 3:43 PM</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sorry it’s taken me a bit to respond. I’m on leave. Anyway, where can I get a good print of this? I’d frame it and hang it in my office. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Regards,</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Rigoberto</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Rigoberto González [<a href="mailto:rigonzal@newark.rutgers.edu">rigonzal@newark.rutgers.edu</a>]</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Distinguished Professor of English</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Director, Rutgers-Newark MFA Program in Creative Writing</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">43 Bleeker St.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Newark, NJ 07102</span></p>
<p style="color: #646464; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #4c4c4c; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">May 25, 2023, 7:50 PM</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Hola Rigoberto,</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Thanks for the response. It is extremely rare for a professor to respond to my criticism. That has been my decades-long experience. Now, I have to wonder if you're joking, And if you're not, then perhaps you did not understand the aquarelle image. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Au plaisir, </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #757575; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">G. Tod</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #757575; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #757575; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">[No further response]</span></p></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-36978617260797498732023-07-03T04:32:00.000-07:002023-07-03T04:32:16.416-07:00Radical Teacher<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Not sure if I've been shadow banned, so don't know if anyone ever looks at the blog. So be it. The following was sketched and shot out to the targets in 2020. No response was ever received. <span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e;">When radical becomes groupthink ideologue, it is no longer really radical, which demands a certain independence and courage… to break away from the herd, including the self-proclaimed radical herd.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e;">........................................................</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0kbtDUVgvBXr9FkO5BRahlWiCCUS8aepQGFGeEbdr1TVuLixP76a81Z-Klyb0c5Q9A4siG5mpjw8zjmwJDkJ5faGAN-c_cSiW3bT9ZQSplv_T84LcTZQVG8Z8uZPV3xCRTZ4D84MBcTp_gD2I93onGKxMISlGZBw_nFhSvYL0ShLoyggw34MqHWlL3GOJ/s2178/Radical%20Teacher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2178" data-original-width="2015" height="654" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0kbtDUVgvBXr9FkO5BRahlWiCCUS8aepQGFGeEbdr1TVuLixP76a81Z-Klyb0c5Q9A4siG5mpjw8zjmwJDkJ5faGAN-c_cSiW3bT9ZQSplv_T84LcTZQVG8Z8uZPV3xCRTZ4D84MBcTp_gD2I93onGKxMISlGZBw_nFhSvYL0ShLoyggw34MqHWlL3GOJ/w605-h654/Radical%20Teacher.jpg" width="605" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e;"><br /></span></span><p></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-63437876488484636002023-06-26T05:33:00.005-07:002023-06-26T05:34:38.843-07:00Sturgis Library<p><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">The following is a broadside distributed in 2014. I post it here now because I want it to be available regarding an article I'm writing on the Cape Cod Writers Center.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">........................................................</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglaNQ7L3Y7LXTGafetI0r4zN1K_3PJcpJkzUSAD1Ew1fbIDNC2sK9F-7ymRA9sHYsw7TzW96816QXNjh5U6ELF0SLGMZMuJI99s3-Oq5q8nAKZsqLgeegiSvrikv6T4wUFlcoeursYzy155kDuBrIS6kS8RaW6F0dEQbUcSVMFbrhBafUnJ23kI3xtaVCP/s1584/%E2%80%8E2014%20Cape%20Cod%20Writers%20Center%20Conference.%E2%80%8E1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1584" data-original-width="1224" height="804" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglaNQ7L3Y7LXTGafetI0r4zN1K_3PJcpJkzUSAD1Ew1fbIDNC2sK9F-7ymRA9sHYsw7TzW96816QXNjh5U6ELF0SLGMZMuJI99s3-Oq5q8nAKZsqLgeegiSvrikv6T4wUFlcoeursYzy155kDuBrIS6kS8RaW6F0dEQbUcSVMFbrhBafUnJ23kI3xtaVCP/w621-h804/%E2%80%8E2014%20Cape%20Cod%20Writers%20Center%20Conference.%E2%80%8E1.jpeg" width="621" /></a></div><br /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><p></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-56176132386562840032023-06-26T05:20:00.004-07:002023-06-26T05:20:56.103-07:00<p>The following is a broadside distributed in 2012. I post it here now because I want it to be available regarding an article I'm writing on the Cape Cod Writers Center.</p><p style="text-align: center;">............................................................</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaFp2mUxPkAaIFDiMO9PIrgn0pwjm43UzTR8uNuQffkUa_jOe0nUFcI6pLDEYb8liaZeaPpvzsQcd-9jDQ8xZTAN7O77GlSk1X04bfzphSMN1kANz5sx0StY1ZiJUaYwwejY9cJJDYWKPVua6K7VFXEVU4SEb8_11Owp2h1mbMQ7qGHi9yobIn_eXmkSXc/s1224/%E2%80%8ECape%20Cod%20Writers%20Center%20Conference.%E2%80%8E1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1224" height="459" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaFp2mUxPkAaIFDiMO9PIrgn0pwjm43UzTR8uNuQffkUa_jOe0nUFcI6pLDEYb8liaZeaPpvzsQcd-9jDQ8xZTAN7O77GlSk1X04bfzphSMN1kANz5sx0StY1ZiJUaYwwejY9cJJDYWKPVua6K7VFXEVU4SEb8_11Owp2h1mbMQ7qGHi9yobIn_eXmkSXc/w717-h459/%E2%80%8ECape%20Cod%20Writers%20Center%20Conference.%E2%80%8E1.jpeg" width="717" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-40707789480890453142023-06-19T04:04:00.005-07:002023-06-19T04:04:51.858-07:00Amy Werbel -- Curator Censor<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkWUQhjdoWgfhDdrFW8UpVrvTFdIrY2YYEmODW7quZsGRWxdgbwjOoNydUNSvtBq2jO8uc9fMO0-X4vXAV1OKN6N1RfKernoxcIAPoW194wejmYvW9gzPGXIu7CeY0nE-Az9uDz6AP4Xo4ok5BhQjK-04L34nSGZJvWS9KAiJOoYz1FF81awpHotnj5-I2/s2385/Profs-Amy%20Werbel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2385" data-original-width="2242" height="723" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkWUQhjdoWgfhDdrFW8UpVrvTFdIrY2YYEmODW7quZsGRWxdgbwjOoNydUNSvtBq2jO8uc9fMO0-X4vXAV1OKN6N1RfKernoxcIAPoW194wejmYvW9gzPGXIu7CeY0nE-Az9uDz6AP4Xo4ok5BhQjK-04L34nSGZJvWS9KAiJOoYz1FF81awpHotnj5-I2/w681-h723/Profs-Amy%20Werbel.jpg" width="681" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">...................................................................................</div><p></p><p>So, Amy, how about a little exhibit of cartoons critical of academic curators like you at SUNY ?</p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-2222694543283444812023-02-27T05:48:00.009-08:002023-02-27T05:49:57.795-08:00John Reed and Lawrence Brown<p>Well, John Reed is dead. He was the intellectually corrupt head of the local human rights commission in Barnstable, MA. For him, I was the wrong race, and so to be ignored. So, how can I possibly write, RIP? Rather RII, Rest In Infamy! Below is an aquarelle I sketched on him a while ago. Bureaucrat educator/columnist Lawrence Brown just wrote a <i>Cape Cod Times hagiography</i> on him, "<a href="https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/opinion/columns/2023/02/26/opinion-john-reed-cape-civil-rights-icon-worked-for-racial-equality/69917006007/?utm_source=ncct-DailyBriefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-briefing&utm_term=Content%20List%20-%20Stacking%20-%20optimized&utm_content=MASSACHUSETTS-HYANNIS-NLETTER65" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Opinion/Brown: John Reed Cape civil rights activist pushed us to think about race, justice</a>," which is how I was informed of the death. And so, I write a counter-essay, which will be sent to the brick wall <i>Times</i>, which refuses to publish anything I send it...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEnsFoOJGCvBHuES0nR6dpz3dkEJ0A3ZDXwu_UpFjKZ-nYqSxp5_78iT8XCV1FIpD2fjBXef3QAUoJ2bCz4cPX0vvQdFmsKey_M3QTrsKaM2bXSS7wNMsdgHajZxSgNIkAGSqCHcPqY1cqnAus2gKBI1pOgT9y01c2M311ZhrsD35mMJdImCL_urq1MQ/s2362/4-HumanRightsCommission.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1660" data-original-width="2362" height="498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEnsFoOJGCvBHuES0nR6dpz3dkEJ0A3ZDXwu_UpFjKZ-nYqSxp5_78iT8XCV1FIpD2fjBXef3QAUoJ2bCz4cPX0vvQdFmsKey_M3QTrsKaM2bXSS7wNMsdgHajZxSgNIkAGSqCHcPqY1cqnAus2gKBI1pOgT9y01c2M311ZhrsD35mMJdImCL_urq1MQ/w664-h498/4-HumanRightsCommission.jpg" width="664" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-78892903131861957512023-02-20T17:57:00.000-08:002023-02-20T17:57:25.890-08:00Naomi Shihab Nye<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVYJdadgzMASmqu93Ek7722nYQ2Aj74e6Jwmk1Yb4UdfmNBrh5zCY_rHyFg4ro0hBxF4hkg7_m63N7ZaekxZkAWvU4umN0yC94Ypr47kC6tehF_3QXQXGbV6melMmL8o47QvNBLySHrwQDiNtLezZBXv6p905UhR7rtx3pOCIAikI8FBR56_hvTA-rUg/s2351/Poets-Nye%20Naomi%20Shihab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2351" data-original-width="2054" height="754" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVYJdadgzMASmqu93Ek7722nYQ2Aj74e6Jwmk1Yb4UdfmNBrh5zCY_rHyFg4ro0hBxF4hkg7_m63N7ZaekxZkAWvU4umN0yC94Ypr47kC6tehF_3QXQXGbV6melMmL8o47QvNBLySHrwQDiNtLezZBXv6p905UhR7rtx3pOCIAikI8FBR56_hvTA-rUg/w656-h754/Poets-Nye%20Naomi%20Shihab.jpg" width="656" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> ................................................</div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">Unsurprisingly, Nye and the student editors of Texas State chose NOT to respond. Thus, is the state of vigorous debate, cornerstone of democracy, in the academic/literary establishment...</span></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-12274307672685782902023-02-13T09:42:00.002-08:002023-02-13T09:42:23.925-08:00Catherine Lalonde<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvBKzypplethzCq2sjS_-A5DPqfWqmDwHoHAIAHUz1xXCTeI3kBdNqXbtby41EDYSa5MZUzpEFA20zESDcLm1pDX8wzowyNay4He_XvYldaPW8Mg0YjTo1zrJrPeUX6MBoQ7si_MWV4mjeDmC2amF3Q33_220Zq6avO2WuHNmU8O5IUl54jpWXEUX8dw/s2508/Le%20Devoir-Catherine%20Lalonde.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2508" data-original-width="2110" height="780" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvBKzypplethzCq2sjS_-A5DPqfWqmDwHoHAIAHUz1xXCTeI3kBdNqXbtby41EDYSa5MZUzpEFA20zESDcLm1pDX8wzowyNay4He_XvYldaPW8Mg0YjTo1zrJrPeUX6MBoQ7si_MWV4mjeDmC2amF3Q33_220Zq6avO2WuHNmU8O5IUl54jpWXEUX8dw/w656-h780/Le%20Devoir-Catherine%20Lalonde.jpg" width="656" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-68954447964081122532023-01-29T07:09:00.029-08:002023-03-25T16:02:04.043-07:00A Decade Later: No Longer Permanently Banned from Sturgis Library<p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica;">The following is the recent email exchange that I had with the director of Sturgis Library, who had permanently banned me verbally in 2012. </b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica;">..............................................</b></p><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica;">From:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica;"> George Slone</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, October 9, 2022 10:49 AM</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>To:</b> sturgislibrary@comcast.net <sturgislibrary@comcast.net>; sturgisreference@comcast.net <sturgisreference@comcast.net></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Cc:</b> Bardetti, Andrew <abardetti@sccls.org>; edith@edithvonnegut.com <edith@edithvonnegut.com></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Subject:</b> A citizen's request for an update</p><div><br /></div>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To Director Lucy Loomis, Sturgis Library: </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Ten years later and at age 74, I am left wondering if your no-trespass order is still in effect today. Recall that your reason for issuing the order was “for the safety of the staff and public” (see <a href="http://theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_email.html"><span style="color: #10100f;">theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_email.html</span></a>). To this day, however, I have never made any threats and have no record of physical violence at all. Nevertheless, I have been an open critic of librarians, libraries, and the American Library Association. Is such criticism unsafe? </p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When freedom of expression is punished, democracy dies. Your mission statement seems to be in line with that thought: “[Sturgis Library] Promotes the free exchange of ideas and serves as a community meeting place.” However, how can it not be hypocritical when those like me, who openly express critical opinions, are not permitted at that “meeting place”? Perhaps from your perspective, my criticisms might seem angry, but I certainly do not hate you or Sturgis Library. I am a critic, not a hater. </p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">On another note, the email addresses of your trustees ought to be included on the Sturgis Library website. I would have liked to have been able to cc this email to John Littlefield, President, Board of Trustees, and the others. However, I cannot find their email addresses. Perhaps those who wish to remain uncontactable ought to stay out of the leadership limelight. </p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In any case, I shall wait a week and a half for your response. If I do not hear from you, then I shall assume the trespass order is no longer in effect and shall then peacefully walk into Sturgis Library as a local taxpaying patron. As you can see, however, I shall remain openly critical… in accord with your mission statement. Thank you for your attention. </p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: center;">....................................................</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>From:</b> Lucy Loomis <sturgislibrary@comcast.net></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, October 13, 2022 9:18 AM</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>To:</b> George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Cc:</b> Bardetti, Andrew <abardetti@sccls.org></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Subject:</b> Re: A citizen's request for an update</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Hello Mr. Slone: </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I received your recent email regarding returning to Sturgis Library, and shared it with the members of the Executive Committee of our Board of Trustees. I am copying this email to them.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The 2012 trespass order was officially issued by the Barnstable Police Department, and any questions about whether it is still applicable should be referred to them.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If you resume visits to the Library, please know that the following policies, adopted by the Board of Trustees, must be followed by all Library visitors. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Acceptable Behavior Policy</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.sturgislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Sturgis-Acceptable-Behaviour-Policy-final.pdf">https://www.sturgislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Sturgis-Acceptable-Behaviour-Policy-final.pdf</a></span><span style="color: #262626;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Posting of Non-Library Materials on the Bulletin Board</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.sturgislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/DisplayandPostingofNon-LibraryMaterials.pdf">https://www.sturgislibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/DisplayandPostingofNon-LibraryMaterials.pdf</a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Thank you. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><b>Lucy Loomis, Library Director</b> <span style="color: black;"><br />
</span>Sturgis Library, Barnstable Village <span style="color: black;"><br />
</span>An independent nonprofit library<span style="color: black;"><br />
<a href="http://www.sturgislibrary.org/"><span style="color: #0000e9;">http://www.sturgislibrary.org </span><span style="color: #0000e9;"><br />
</span></a></span>508-362-8448<span style="color: black;"><br />
<span style="color: #0000e9;"><a href="https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E345192&id=13">Please support Sturgis Library</a></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;">..............................................................</span></p><div dir="ltr" id="divRplyFwdMsg" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: black;"><b>From:</b>George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com><br /><b>Sent:</b>Monday, January 30, 2023 7:16 AM<br /><b>To:</b>Lucy Loomis <sturgislibrary@comcast.net><br /><b>Subject:</b>Re: A citizen's request for an update</span><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="color: black;"></span></p><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="x_elementToProof" style="border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="x_ContentPasted0" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">To Director Lucy Loomis, Sturgis Library: </span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></p><p class="x_ContentPasted0" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thank you for the response… several months ago.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">At your suggestion, I finally went down to the police department and mentioned you now have given me permission to enter Sturgis Library.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A woman there handed me a sheet of paper, the only thing in my file.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And it was the same sheet I’d paid fifty cents for a decade ago.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This time it was free of charge.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nothing on it mentioned permanent trespass at all.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For a copy of that report, see </span><a class="x_ContentPasted0" data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_library.html" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; color: #131312; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">https://theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_library.html</span></a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">on the bottom of the page.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The woman explained that the police do not even have to hand me a written document when they trespass a person. </span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">All they have to do is tell the person verbally, which they never did with my regard.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And of course, since it’s not written, I can’t prove that.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The woman also stated that such a verbal order would only be valid for two years.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And yet you’d stated permanently.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How sad that our laws in America are often vague to the point where they can work against common citizens… to the benefit of directors and, of course, the great legal industry. </span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></p><p class="x_ContentPasted0" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="x_Apple-tab-span x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In any event, what you did with my regard was certainly not democratic in nature, but rather authoritarian: permanently banning me with no warning and no due process at all… and justifying your decision that somehow I was a public danger, as in “for the safety of the staff and public”?</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">After all, never did I make any threats of violence and certainly do not have a police record with that regard.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And how sad that your library trustees fully backed you on that authoritarian decision.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hopefully, former trustee Vonnegut is still rolling in his grave.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Such authoritarianism seems to rule here on Cape Cod in the cultural sphere.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Alas.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></p><p class="x_ContentPasted0" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="x_Apple-tab-span x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In any case, I am glad that you finally decided to permit me to enter Sturgis Library, my neighborhood library, once again.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">However, at this point in my life, I just might never do that for I have no desire whatsoever to see you again.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Also, in contrast with Sturgis Library, the women at Yarmouth Port Library have been very kind.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We have gotten along quite nicely over the past decade since your banning decree. </span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></p><p class="x_ContentPasted0" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="x_Apple-tab-span x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Please forward this email to the Executive Committee of your Board of Trustees, including John Littlefield, President; Marcia Lay, Vice President/Secretary; and Paula King, Treasurer, since trustee email addresses, for some reason, are not publicly divulged on your website.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As Chief Justice Brandeis had rightfully stated:</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Oh, well…</span></p><p class="x_ContentPasted0" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="x_Apple-tab-span x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By the way, to this day, not one library on Cape Cod has been willing to subscribe to the nonprofit 501 c3 journal I publish on Cape Cod devoted to literature, democracy (i.e., freedom of expression and vigorous debate), and dissidence.</span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What might that imply? </span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br class="x_ContentPasted0" /></p><p class="x_ContentPasted0" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Au plaisir,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br class="x_ContentPasted0" /></p><p class="x_ContentPasted0" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">G. Tod Slone (PhD—Université de Nantes, FR), aka P. Maudit, Founding Editor (1998)</span></p><p class="x_ContentPasted0" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The American Dissident, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence</span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="x_ContentPasted0" data-auth="NotApplicable" href="http://www.theamericandissident.org/" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">www.theamericandissident.org</span></a></span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></p><p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="x_ContentPasted0" data-auth="NotApplicable" href="http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com</span></a></span><span class="x_Apple-converted-space x_ContentPasted0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></p><p class="x_ContentPasted0" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">todslone@hotmail.com</span></p><p class="x_ContentPasted0" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">217 Commerce Rd.</span></p><p class="x_ContentPasted0" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Barnstable, MA 02630</span></p></div></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, January 31, 2023 6:47 AM</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>To:</b> George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com>; Lucy Loomis <director@sturgislibrary.org></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Subject:</b> Re: A citizen's request for an update</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Hello Mr. Slone:</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I am glad you were able to clarify the trespass order with the police. To be clear, we never stated that the trespass order was permanent. I have copies of all of our correspondence and neither the Trustees nor myself ever declared it a permanent ban. That was an assumption you made at the time, and chose not to clarify with the police or legal counsel. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It is therefore your choice to return to the Library or not, as long as you are willing to abide by our policies. At the time you asked to be reinstated in 2015 and 2017, our Board did not feel, from your correspondence with me and them, that you were willing to do that. I hope that you will be going forward. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Please be aware that if you visit this week and possibly next week we have limited services and hours because we are getting new carpeting. If you plan to visit please enter through the front door. We’ll be open 10-3. We hope to resume regular services and hours next week. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Thank you. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lucy Loomis</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Library Director </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Sent from my iPhone</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>From:</b> George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, January 31, 2023 12:39 PM</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>To:</b> Lucy Loomis <sturgislibrary@comcast.net></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Subject:</b> A citizen's request for an update</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To Lucy Loomis,</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Confusion, lack of clarity, and absence of written documents always serve those in power. Surely, you must know that… and have taken advantage of it. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Again, the problem with <b>verbal trespass orders </b>like the one you issued with my regard in 2012 is that what was said cannot be proven. My journal entry for that day (see below) does in fact note that you did say yes, when I asked if the trespass was permanent. If you had taken five minutes to write the order on paper and give me a copy, then you could have proven you never stated such a thing. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Also, the police report fails to mention at all the duration of your (or its?) trespass order. See the actual report on the bottom of this webpage: <a href="https://theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_library.html"><span style="color: #10100f;">https://theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_library.html</span></a>. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In an email, I’d written to Ted Lowry, president of Sturgis trustees, in 2013, I clearly stated “permanently banning me.” Lowry responded, but did not argue the ban not to be permanent. Why? See the correspondence here: <a href="http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2013/09/ted-lowry-enemy-of-first-amendment.html"><span style="color: #10100f;">http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2013/09/ted-lowry-enemy-of-first-amendment.html</span></a>. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the email sent by you to Lowry, the only document made available to me thanks to the State Secretary of Records, you did not contradict my statement that the banning was permanent. You failed to mention in it the duration of the banning. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Moreover, in the 2015 email I sent you, again “permanently banned me” was mentioned. Why did you not correct that statement? </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #10100f; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In 2017, Jeanie Hill, the new Sturgis trustee president, wrote: “There is a no trespass order in effect; therefore your request to be reinstated at Sturgis Library is denied.” How does that jive with the police argument that it can only trespass someone for two years? </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Again, confusion, lack of clarity, and absence of written documents serve those in power. Below is the journal entry I made on the day you permanently trespassed me. I asked you if it was permanent and you said, yes. I certainly did not make that up. Why would I? <span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br />
</span>Hopefully, you will at least have learned that you should present a written document with precisions to any future trespassed patrons. They should certainly have the right to such a document! <span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br />
</span>Anyhow, onwards…</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Au plaisir,</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">G. Tod Slone</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">From my journal:</span></b> </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>June 19, 2012</b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Tues. I work for Rob from 745 to 245. Exhausting shit sanding a deck all day. Then I nap for 20 min and head to the library somewhat dazed and confused. I check out a couple of DVDs, set up the laptop and do my thing. Then Lucy and a cop enter the room. “I do not want you here anymore,” she says. “This is a no-trespass,” says the cop. Then two more cops enter the room. Am I dreaming? Is this America? “What did I do?” I asked. “You’ve been criticizing me and don’t like it here, so now you will not be able to come here.” <b>“Is that permanent?” I ask. “Yes,” she says. </b> “And the no-trespass includes the parking lot,” she says to the other cop. “Why three cops?” I say. “I have no record. I don’t have a weapon.” Then one of them (Foley, I later find out), twists my arm, holds it, and searches me. “Are you allowed to do that? Are you going to arrest me now and put me in a cell?” “As you soon as you mentioned weapon, we can do that,” he says. “Keep your voice down.” “I mean this is fucked up?” I say. “Don’t use that word!” he says. “Is fuck illegal here?” I say. “Is this a democracy or fascism?” “Do you understand you will be arrested if you come here again?” “Yes, now where can I file a complaint?” I ask. “Town hall,” says the first cop. Then the three of them escort me out the door. I know it would be easy as hell to get arrested. Somehow I resist the temptation. “This is why people don’t have confidence in the police,” I say.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px;"><span style="color: black;">
</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><div><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></div>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-41978107957347349652023-01-29T07:02:00.004-08:002023-01-29T11:20:34.159-08:00July 4, 2011<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">July 4, 2011 / A Free Speech Protest</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>Superficial, Subjective Civility First… Democracy Last<br /></b><b>An Experiment in Free Speech</b></h2>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It doesn’t take a Constitutional amendment to end free speech in America. Apathy in the face of oppression is enough to do the job. Free speech is already under assault. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">—Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, tried in Austria for criticizing Islam under Austrian “hate crime” legislation</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
Lots of noise. I guess that’s what the 4<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span> has come to mean and be: noise, nothing but noise! I’d decided to skip my protest idea at the celebration parade and muzzle myself like everyone else. I’d done enough protests to know that nobody would understand or really give a damn. Heavy polluting fire engines raced down the road, followed by cars and trucks with commercial logos, as part of the beginning of the parade. But then the noise pushed me to create a sign: CELEBRATE THE FIRST FUCKING AMENDMENT, NOT COMMERCE! Hell, I wasn’t going to do it. My superego had the upper hand. Then suddenly my Id took over. Today could be my last day on the fuckin’ planet. Who knows?</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Out I went with the sign from the other day, “Sturgis Library Censorship and Hypocrisy,” around my neck and holding up the larger sign on the First Amendment I’d just created. I walked down Commerce Rd. “Excellent!” says a woman sincerely. Well, that bodes well. But then heading down Millway by the harbor and bridge I pass scorn, scowl, grimace from one adult after the next. They’re coming back from the parade, which I missed. “That’s mature!” says some guy with kids. “Watch your language!” says another guy. But I didn’t say a word. “That’s inappropriate for children!” scolds a woman. Then I walk up by Cobb’s Hill West Cemetery where events for the kids in the park by the church. Scowling humans like rabid dogs confront me. “Nice!” says some guy with scorn of hatred on his face. Then an old buzzard walks up to me, looking like he wants to beat me up. “That’s bad language!” he states. “You shouldn’t be here. Go home!” “You go home!” I say. “I use whatever the fuck language I want to use.” He walks right up to my face. “What are you going to do, beat me up?” I ask, then walk off. That’s all I need, get caught fighting an old man. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But there’s hope. “Great use of the First Amendment!” says a young woman, walking over to me to shake my hand. I thank her for the encouragement and tell her she wouldn’t believe the looks of hatred I’ve so far gotten. On 6A heading into town, I step into the potter’s shop where last week I’d chatted with the potter regarding the library censorship. I show him the sign. He evidently disapproves, though can’t quite get the words out. I think he’s afraid he’ll lose business if I hang around. And indeed he’s got a bunch of clients looking around. And to think he’d told me last week that people considered him as different because he’d dare do what others often wouldn’t… or whatever. I ask if I can borrow a pencil. He kindly gives me one. I step back outside and write down some of the things people said on the back of my sign. Traffic is heavy. I hold the sign up to the autos passing by slowly. A carload of college-age kids cheers me. Bumper to bumper. I stop and chat with them and thank them for the support. “Great sign!” says one of them. “I’m glad some of you aren’t dead yet,” I say to them. They like the comment. “You have a nice day, sir,” says the driver. “I’m courageous,” I say. “I almost got beaten up by some old guy.” </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Too much white glove cleaning!” I say to a woman driving with White Glove Cleaning printed on her car. “Just joking!” I say. She appreciates the comment. “Come on, man!” says some guy with kids. “It’s not cool!” “Well, I’m not cool then,” I say. “It’s that simple!” I stand for a moment in front of a cop, who’s talking to a woman. But he doesn’t pay attention. Good enough. Maybe he’s actually First Amendment educated. Who knows? </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Why do you use profanity,” says an unaccompanied guy. “For this, it makes a damn good point, that’s why,” I say. We talk for a bit. “What you’re doing isn’t really important,” he says. “You should be out fighting for health care or other things instead.” “But there’s always something more important,” I say. “For me, the First Amendment is very important. For you, it isn’t. And what do you do, if I might ask?” “I’m an IT,” he says. “That’s Information Tech.” “You know, I wasn’t even going to do this,” I say. “It’s much easier to sit at home or just be one of the herd. But I do it for my dignity as a human being. I stand up and away from the herd. You probably wouldn’t understand because you’d never do something like this. Right?” “I just think there’s more important things you could do with your life,” he says. “Like what? Be an IT?” I say. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“I believe in freedom of speech, but,” says some guy without finishing his sentence. “Yes, there’s always a BUT,” I say. “And that’s the problem.” He continues on. “That’s real nice showing that to children!” hollers some guy out of his pickup. “I appreciate it, sir!” I say. “Asshole!” mumbles a woman with hubbie and wheeling a couple of kids. “Now, that’s a good one!” I say. An old buzzard slows down, reads the sign, then shakes his head in disgust. “Have a heart attack!” I say. Then a car with American Civil War written on it passes. The driver scowls. The old buzzard from before arrives now in his car, slows down to frown at me. “What are you gonna do, shoot me?” I say. “I don’t have a gun,” he says. “Mr. Charles Manson.” So, now I’m Charles Manson! </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I stop and chat with five old ladies seated on a bench by the road, looking like daughters of the American Revolution. “Hypocrisy at the library?” says one of them looking at my sign. “Yes, nothing’s perfect, not even the public libraries,” I say. She wants to know why hypocrisy, so I explain, but don’t think she quite understood. A rare black dude wants to take my photo next to the ladies. But the ladies don’t want that. So he takes my photo in the opposite direction. I hand him a flyer and ask him to send me a copy. “I detect a slight accent,” I say. “West Africa,” he says. “See, Americans wouldn’t do that, they wouldn’t be interested like you,” I say. Nice guy. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Back I head. I stop at the cemetery again and stand by the road with my sign. A little kid comes up shoots a photo of me and scurries off. I tell him to come back. Nice kid. He takes another. “I love America,” I say to him. “Cause I can do this and not get shot!” He scurries off, then is back again. “Can you say what you said before and I’ll take one?” he says. “Ah, so it’s a recorder too,” I say. “Sure!” And I do and he records it. “Send me a copy,” I say. “Here’s my email.” Nice kid. I decide not to walk up for a second time to the playground where the kid’s activities. It could get violent if I did. By the dock, a college kid attendant is talking with a couple of other college-agers in the street. “Do they teach you this in college?” I say. “No,” he says with a smile. “Too bad,” I say. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Hot blasting sun. Back down Commerce for a few more scorns, then into the house I go. Interestingly, I think, both liberals and conservatives generally expressed disapproval. Well, it wasn’t all bad, just 90% more or less. It’s as if so many of them thought I was the guy teaching the kids bad words. Holding the placard enabled me to see what fellow citizens were like underneath the veneer. Most apparently learned from their parents and are now teaching their children: Sticks and stones will break my bones AND words will be offensive to me. How they can be so offended by a mere word like "FUCKING," while so indifferent to censorship and banning of ideas in their own backyard, is beyond my comprehension. And so, I write up the experience, then poemify it. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><b></b><br /></p><p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Just One Word Is All It Takes<br />
An Experiment in Free Speech</span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Noise, noise, noise—cop sirens,</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">fire engine diesel stench, and</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">local merchants parading their logos </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">past my house in the morning. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It was the Fourth of July, and I’d</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">decided earlier not to go, </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">but somehow they’d gotten under my skin, </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">so I grabbed my felt markers, ruler </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and piece of cardboard, got to work, </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">then out I went to brave the citizenry </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">holding a large red, white, and blue placard:</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Celebrate the First</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">FUCKING </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amendment,</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Not Commerce!</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Most of them didn’t say anything.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">They didn’t have to—their faces said it all.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">One by one they scowled hatred at me. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Nice!</i> said one of them sarcastically.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>That’s real mature! </i>said another.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Watch your language!</i> yet another barked.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But I hadn’t even said a fuckin’ word.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>That’s inappropriate for children, sir!</i></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">snarled a seething female mommy. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Ah, a nice neighborly Christian</i>, I replied.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Then a large man seemed like he wanted</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">to engage in discussion over the issue.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>I believe in freedom of speech, but…</i></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">he said without finishing.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Yes, there always seems to be a ‘but,’ </i> </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I said. <i>Isn’t that the problem?</i></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Well, he walked off, not quite sure </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">how to deal with my response. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Asshole! </i>whispered a young gal</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">wheeling a kid with hubby next to her.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Now, that’s ironical,</i> I said, not knowing</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">if she knew what the hell the word meant. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>That’s real nice, showing that to children,</i></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">snapped another concerned mother.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>But I’m showing it to you, not to them,</i> I said. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>They could give a fuck about my sign.</i></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Would she have me arrested? I knew</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">how easy that would be to do.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Then I got braver and stood for a moment</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">not far from a cop, knowing quite well</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">that my expression of free speech </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">could easily be interpreted by him </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">as disorderly conduct. But he didn’t respond. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Come on, man! </i>said a young daddy.<i> It’s not cool! </i></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Well, I’m not cool then,</i> I said. <i>It’s that simple!</i></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Most citizens seemed ignorant of their rights</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and didn’t give a damn about the subject. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I was ever interested in it, but still didn’t know</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">what the hell my rights were. </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the bleak and dismal, hope suddenly appeared </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">—a young college-aged woman approached me</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and said, “great use of the First Amendment!”<br />
She shook my hand, but then a minute later </p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">an old bugger rushed up to my face, snarling.</p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>You, Charles Manson! </i>he yelled angrily.</p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-91102339098806300112022-11-27T12:54:00.005-08:002022-11-27T12:54:49.374-08:00Le Devoir -- Caroline Montpetit, Michel Garneau, et Mira Falardeau<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIDf8-zcqEnBSQ5HvLhIOdKO9SYC6OQscI84h-1e7AWgyUXW1eFvL4Zkl5TwXy9-STFjHquX6ihd-18sxCyfC2n10JU6OZtVw9_xG7doYyaixo0CLU4V-vNzOOwq07pDRaNmCUf6E9qSG37a_ljbC4lP5AVk9ksikVF9oEBmBKnGnOsIBysvZ3YVi-nQ/s2210/LeDevoir%20-%20Montpetit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2047" data-original-width="2210" height="572" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIDf8-zcqEnBSQ5HvLhIOdKO9SYC6OQscI84h-1e7AWgyUXW1eFvL4Zkl5TwXy9-STFjHquX6ihd-18sxCyfC2n10JU6OZtVw9_xG7doYyaixo0CLU4V-vNzOOwq07pDRaNmCUf6E9qSG37a_ljbC4lP5AVk9ksikVF9oEBmBKnGnOsIBysvZ3YVi-nQ/w619-h572/LeDevoir%20-%20Montpetit.jpg" width="619" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-89755301162135088882022-10-20T06:15:00.000-07:002022-10-20T06:15:12.559-07:00Devon Walker-Figueroa and Carmen Giménez<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_X1wtwZtdfyddoEufucl8sccKlyF5IRTkUlqCB0mlCL6lbYv3V5trPQfxRBoXZWEQGnXuWKxg1AaFDADWaCTxRfJAE_yuP1p1QDHr0tbGPs9CXvo1YidJlWqx2nKep_dNgtVPTZZeXr3GaKaU5NQ4NBdykXWvas9ZJH68p_QVM1DN8cqINIkThtERA/s2141/Graywolf%20Press.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1830" data-original-width="2141" height="533" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_X1wtwZtdfyddoEufucl8sccKlyF5IRTkUlqCB0mlCL6lbYv3V5trPQfxRBoXZWEQGnXuWKxg1AaFDADWaCTxRfJAE_yuP1p1QDHr0tbGPs9CXvo1YidJlWqx2nKep_dNgtVPTZZeXr3GaKaU5NQ4NBdykXWvas9ZJH68p_QVM1DN8cqINIkThtERA/w623-h533/Graywolf%20Press.jpg" width="623" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-1696791485018280632022-10-05T05:38:00.017-07:002022-10-05T05:50:31.265-07:00Kevin Carey, Anne Pluto, Lloyd Schwartz, Daniel Tobin<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The following is the front cover for the next issue of <i>The American Dissident</i> due to be published later this month (October, 2022). Below it, appears the email sent to the 4 prof/poets depicted on the front cover and invited by Sturgis Library to read. I, a poet/editor, was NOT permitted to attend the reading. Not one of the prof/poets deigned to respond. In essence, not one of them gives a damn about vigorous debate and freedom of expression, the two prime cornerstones of a thriving democracy. They do incarnate the sad state of America today...</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">...........................................</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiINDv4ZM7SathjeMGRDy1n8gfTslBvHnOmiQLMHhTiLIUHbY30n76QQEWxQ8ExUfBMRrNSvYgCG8TYLwr-3UMvrr1fcM3SnsZaCIkpWRxRa-yBhipcC92OmU14F-eOdkMbLh4yQmajTsqwj-3fd2vOCTaifeQE6rnAGOsjbo5WUMglzt1qzZHfcOq_Uw/s1632/AD44-Front%20Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1632" data-original-width="1056" height="919" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiINDv4ZM7SathjeMGRDy1n8gfTslBvHnOmiQLMHhTiLIUHbY30n76QQEWxQ8ExUfBMRrNSvYgCG8TYLwr-3UMvrr1fcM3SnsZaCIkpWRxRa-yBhipcC92OmU14F-eOdkMbLh4yQmajTsqwj-3fd2vOCTaifeQE6rnAGOsjbo5WUMglzt1qzZHfcOq_Uw/w594-h919/AD44-Front%20Cover.jpg" width="594" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 23); color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">.........................................</span></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">To Prof Poets Kevin Carey (</span><a href="https://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/search?q=Salem+State" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="color: #10100f;">Salem State University</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">), Anne Pluto (</span><a href="https://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/search?q=Lesley+University" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="color: #10100f;">Lesley University</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">), Lloyd Schwartz (</span><a href="https://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/search?q=University+of+Massachusetts" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="color: #10100f;">University of Massachusetts</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">), and Daniel Tobin (</span><a href="https://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/search?q=Emerson+College" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><span style="color: #10100f;">Emerson College</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">): </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Are you perchance aware that I, as a dissident poet and editor, was not permitted to attend your reading at <a href="http://theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_library.html"><span style="color: #10100f;">Sturgis Library</span></a>, my very neighborhood library? If not, now you are fully aware! From my decades-long experience with poets and academics, however, I doubt very much that any of you will stand up for freedom of speech and actually write a letter decrying library director Lucy Loomis’ autocratic decision to permanently ban me in 2012 for the crime of having disseminated written criticism of her egregious hypocrisy, regarding the library’s (and the <a href="https://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/search?q=American+Library+Association"><span style="color: #10100f;">American Library Association</span></a>’s) collection development statement, in particular, “libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view." Read the <a href="http://sturgisbansdissident.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: #0000e9;">letter from the State Secretary of Records</span></a> of Massachusetts demanding Loomis open her records to public scrutiny, so that I might at least examine what she wrote about me... nine months after the banning. </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Evidently, my point of view and the points of view of all the poets I’ve published since the 2012 banning are NOT permitted at <a href="https://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/search?q=Sturgis+Library"><span style="color: #10100f;">Sturgis Library</span></a>, one of the oldest in the country. Loomis refused a free subscription offer! Likely, I am very, very different from each of you because, as a poet, essayist, cartoonist, and editor, I tend to speak truth openly, especially regarding the multitude of well-fed academic/literary (and librarian!) establishment cogs serving to undermine freedom of speech and vigorous debate, democracy’s very cornerstones. From the inevitable resultant dross (e.g., pathetic apathy and/or ad hominem), I create! Would the <a href="https://www.newenglishreview.org/articles/nasty-notes-from-a-protest-and-an-encounter-with-the-executive-director-of-the-cultural-center-of-cape-cod/"><span style="color: #0000e9;">Cultural Center of Cape Cod</span></a> open its doors to my critical aquarelles? Of course not! PROHIBITED! </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Currently, I am contemplating an idea using the four of you for the front cover of the next issue, #44, of <i>The American Dissident</i>. As a highly unusual literary editor, I not only brook harsh criticism (unlike Loomis and most others in power positions), but encourage it especially regarding the journal and me... and publish the harshest received in each and every issue. Is there another literary journal that does that… in the name of democracy, as opposed to groupthink wokidiocy? Well, I have yet to find one! </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So, I encourage you to respond. And yes, I too was once a professor, but, for me, speaking truth openly always took precedence over climbing the see-no-evil, speak-no-evil ladder to tenure. Attached is my Curriculum Mortae for your perusal. Now, would Salem State University, Lesley University, Emerson College, and University of Massachusetts ever consider hiring someone like me? Certainly not! As a side note, how not to LOL regarding Schwartz’ "Pulitzer Prize for Criticism." Yes, anything but criticism of the dubious Pulitzer and all the other hands feeding him! Be curious! Check out the links in this email! </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Why are the bulk of poets and poet organizations so incapable of dealing with criticism? Why is Loomis so incapable? Why does she feel compelled to ban criticism of her? Never have I made any threats! I have no criminal record! It has reached the point where criticism (with the exception of samizdat) simply does not exist with her and their (the poets’) regard. </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As another side note, shame on Edie Vonnegut for using his family name to become a library trustee censor. For him, I attach the cartoon I sketched in 2014, depicting what his relative Kurt had said about Sturgis Library, where once he too served as a trustee. </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">One day, in the brave new world of the Loomis’s, someone like me will be cuffed, arrested, and incarcerated for simply disseminating an email like this one… and thanks to those like you... and, of course, in the name of democracy.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Au plaisir,</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">G. Tod Slone, Ed.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The American Dissident</p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-13391420905979643942022-08-10T05:05:00.005-07:002022-08-10T05:14:41.616-07:00Curriculum Mortae<p style="text-align: center;"><span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Curriculum Mortae</span></b></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>—A Dissident Citizen Poet Professor’s Resume—</b></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">G. Tod Slone, PhD</p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="mailto:todslone@hotmail.com">todslone@hotmail.com</a></span> — <a href="http://www.theamericandissident.org">www.theamericandissident.org</a> </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b></b></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Dissidence</b></span>: If there is no risk when speaking rude truth, there is really no dissidence. It is for that reason that dissidence really implies, at least in America, criticism on the local level. Evidently, there is no risk at all criticizing an American president, thanks to democracy’s legal framework. Examine my two essays: “<a href="http://theamericandissident.org/cold_passion_for_truth.html">The Cold Passion for Truth Hunts in No Pack</a>” and "<a href="http://theamericandissident.org/risk.html">Notes on RISK and Writing</a>." </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">By openly criticizing the academic/literary/art establishment administrators, I personally risked jobs, promotions, invitations, grants, publications, and general blacklisting. As for the latter, the <i>Cape Cod Times</i>, for example, will not include me in its list of Cape Cod authors because I’ve dared criticize its editors. <span style="color: black;">The Academy of American Poets, <i>Poets & Writers</i>, Poetry Foundation, NewPages.com, Arts & Letters (<i>Chronicle of Higher Education</i>), Publishers Weekly, <i>American Libraries Magazine</i> et al have essentially blacklisted <i>The American Dissident</i> (see below), the journal I publish. </span>The very term, dissident, stems from opponents of socialist/communist authoritarian regimes and requisite in-lockstep groupthink. It needs to be applied more frequently in America because such authoritarianism has become an integral part of the nation. Those who toe the line—the bulk of so-called professionals—will automatically detest somebody like me. Indeed for a summary of the ad hominem (kill the messenger/avoid his message) hurled my way, examine </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Dissident Objectives</b></span>: “Go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways” (Emerson); let my life “be a counterfriction to stop the machine” (Thoreau), “write because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention” (Orwell), and teach students and others the importance of individuality and dissidence in a democracy, and open their hearts to hardcore criticism, while encouraging them to learn and create from it. </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Dissident Formation and Experience</b></span><b>: </b>(For a number of other examples of my dissidence, examine “Testing the Waters of Democracy” on <a href="http://theamericandissident.org">The American Dissident</a> website.</p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b>The Sixties</b>. While the Sixties perhaps sensitized me to ubiquitous corruption, it also pressured me to de-individualize, groupthink, and group behave, in essence, prerequisites for a successful career as a university professor or other such “professional.” </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b>Université du Maine</b> (1980-82) and <b>École Nationale de Mécanique</b> (1982-88). While a <i>lecteur de langue anglaise</i> in France, I became interested in reprobates Villon and Céline, as well as other French authors. There, I also read Bukowski for the first time and in French and consequently wrote some of my first poems in French. </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b>Elmira College </b>(1989-1991) Faculty/administrative corruption/apathy transformed me into a firm dissident (i.e., truth-speaking individual, as opposed to careerist ladder climber). Deans sided with a handful of students, who complained now and then that I’d offended their sensitivities.</p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—My first truly critical essays and poems were published in <a href="http://theamericandissident.org/orgs/elmira_college.html">The Octagon</a><i>,</i> the student newspaper. They criticized students and my so-called colleagues, as well as administrators.</p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—I created and disseminated my first critical newsletters, “<a href="http://theamericandissident.org/orgs/ec_purple_marasmus.html">Purple Marasmus</a>,” which I distributed mostly to the Humanities faculty, who I harshly criticized in them. Elmira’s color logo is purple. </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b>Fitchburg State College</b> (1991-1996). My eyes were further opened to academic corruption (e.g., a closet homosexual department chair wanting me to visit him every weekend at his home, highly whimsical faculty evaluations, nepotism, eviction mid-semester from my office w/o due process, a prevaricating dean and apathetic faculty). The American Association of University Professors and the ACLU of Massachusetts remained silent regarding my grievances of state-college corruption.</p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—Eviction from my college office (McKay Campus) mid-semester due to one complaint by a colleague that she was afraid of me, despite my having no criminal record. To this day, I could be arrested if I stepped foot on McKay Campus.</p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—Received a year’s salary as settlement payment after a lengthy in-house hearing. The college never admitted wrong-doing.</p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—The student, local, and state newspapers (<i>Boston Globe</i>), as well as <i>The Chronicle of Higher Education,</i> refused to publish my accounts of corruption at Fitchburg State, which provoked me to begin publishing a newsletter, <i>Corruption Magazine, </i>which morphed into <i>Corruption Massachusetts.</i></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b>Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School</b> (1998). My experience at this so-lauded “blue-ribbon” high school, as a full-time substitute babysitter, resulted in a few highly critical published op-eds in the local newspaper, as well as a non-fiction novel, <a href="http://theamericandissident.org/books/total_chaos.html"><i>Total Chaos</i></a> (People’s Press—2001). </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b><i>The American Dissident </i></b>(created in 1998). A 501 3c nonprofit journal of literature, democracy, and dissidence places rude-truth telling and risk above team-playing, networking, and turning a blind eye. Sadly, it is rare for poets, writers, artists, editors, and journalists to engage in such a modus operandi. </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b>Walden Pond State Reservation</b> (1999). <a href="http://theamericandissident.org/orgs/walden_pond.html">Arrest and incarceration</a> in a Concord jail cell for a day. I was solo protesting the absence of free speech at Walden Pond State Reservation. Both the local media and Thoreau Society were pathetically apathetic. The judge dropped the case against me at the Concord Court House. </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b>Bennett College</b> (2001-2003). Numerous highly critical <a href="http://theamericandissident.org/orgs/bennett_college.html">op-ed</a>s were published in the local and college newspapers. </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<a href="http://theamericandissident.org/festival_international_de_la_poesie_de_trois-rivieres.html"><b>Festival International de la Poésie de Trois-Rivières</b></a> (Québec—2001). The only invited and remunerated poet out of 150 who dared criticize the hands that fed in the form of poems I’d written in French. Never invited back. </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b>Eastern Connecticut University</b> (2002). Wrong skin color (and who knows how many other institutions I’d applied to rejected me for the same reason). Agustin Bernal, Dept. Chair: “The search for the tenure-track position in Spanish/French was declared ‘failed’ by the administration, after three equally acceptable finalists (you among them) were submitted to them for campus interviews. The entire pool of candidates was reviewed and they concluded it wasn't ‘deep’ or ‘diverse’ enough to be satisfactory.”</p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b>The </b><a href="http://theamericandissident.org/orgs/concord_poetry_center.html"><b>Concord Poetry Center</b></a><b> </b>(2004).<b> </b>Director Joan Houlihan stated: “The idea of your teaching a workshop or delivering a lecture on the art of literary protest or poetry protest, or simply protest (Concord is where it all started!) occurred to me even before you mentioned it, so, yes, it’s something I will consider as we progress (this is only our first event). However, I must say I don’t favor having you teach at the center if you protest the reading.” Evidently, I chose to protest the reading. </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—The complete silence of PEN New England (“defending freedom of expression”), regarding impediments to my freedom of expression and the likely influence of poet Joan Houlihan on <a href="http://theamericandissident.org/orgs/pen_new_england.html">PEN director Karen Wulf</a>, both comfortably installed at Lesley University, further provoked my questioning and challenging of such organizations.</p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—The silence of some 500 college English professors regarding my attempts to interest them in radically altering the academic culture of sycophancy, turning a blind eye, careerism, PC, and prevarication confirmed my observations that college professors tended to be apparatchik careerists first, while truth tellers last. </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<a href="http://geocities.com/enmarge"><b>geocities.com/enmarge</b></a>. That was my first website URL, which was removed sometime in the mid 2000s due to one anonymous complaint. Geocities refused to respond to my protest with that regard. Vice notes, “Geocities was one of the first places your average person could make a website for free.” Yeah, well, it was also one of the first places that began censoring websites! </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b>Grambling State University</b> (2005-2007). This was my second experience at an all black (HBCU) college. There I found the same intellectual corruption, as I’d found at Bennett College,… and wrote a number of highly critical <a href="http://theamericandissident.org/orgs/grambling_state_university.html">op-ed</a>s published in the student newspaper. </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b>Watertown Free Public Library</b> (2008). The director issued a <a href="http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2008/11/day-in-life-of-dissident-mindthe-angry.html">six-month no-trespass order</a> with my regard without due process for my attempting to interest its reference librarian in subscribing to <i>The American Dissident. </i></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b>Academy of American Poets</b> (2009). My <a href="http://theamericandissident.org/orgs/academy_american_poets.html">comments on the Academy’s website</a> were censored and I was banned from participating in its online forums. No reason was provided for the banning.</p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b>American Public University</b> (2010-2017). Online instructor of English. This was my very last teaching job… because I disobeyed the <a href="http://theamericandissident.org/orgs/american_public_university_system.html">Chair’s order</a> that I cease expressing myself… regarding criticism lodged against me. </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">—<b>Sturgis Library</b> (2012). <a href="http://theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_library.html">Permanently banned</a> from my neighborhood library w/o warning and w/o due process. The reason: “for the safety of the staff and public.” Five days prior to the banning I’d sent to the library directors of the Clams Library System of Cape Cod a critical essay of their collection development policy, which states, “libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view.” Also, prior to the banning, the Barnstable Patriot <a href="http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/home2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24417&Itemid=53">interviewed me</a>. </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Dissident Publications</b></span>. Numerous critical letters to the editor of student newspapers at colleges employing me confirmed professor indifference to matters of corruption, free speech, and vigorous debate. A number of those letters can be viewed on my <a href="http://theamericandissident.org">blogsite</a>. Numerous publications of poetry, essays, satirical cartoons, novels, and plays. Some of those publications can be viewed on my website and at <a href="http://www.globalfreepress.org/contributors/usa/g-tod-slone">globalfreepress.org/contributors/usa/g-tod-slone</a> and <a href="http://www.globalfreepress.org/cartoonists/g-tod-slone">globalfreepress.org/cartoonists/g-tod-slone</a>. </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Dissident Art Exhibits</b></span>. Critical art exhibits at the <a href="http://www.wickedlocal.com/concord/archive/x936270296/Conflict-is-his-muse">Concord Free Public Library</a> (2008) and Sturgis Library (2011).</p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Solo Protests</b></span>. Staging of various solo protests critical of state-sponsored poets at the Concord Poetry Center, Concord Free Public Library, Robert Creeley Prize in Acton, and elsewhere confirmed poets were largely indifferent to questions of free speech and vigorous debate. </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Foreign Languages Spoken and Written</b></span>: French (near-native fluency—Parisian and québécois), Spanish (fluent), Italian (intermediate fluency), German (reading fluency)</p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Professional Formation & Experience</b></span>: </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Doctorate in English (Université de Nantes, Nantes, France), </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">M.A. in French (Middlebury College), </p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">B.A. (Northeastern University).</p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Online adjunct English/Spanish instructor, American Public University System; English instructor, US Navy (Central Texas College),Visiting professor of French and Spanish (Grambling State University), Online writing instructor (Davenport University), Assistant professor of French and Spanish (Bennett College) and (Fitchburg State College), Assistant professor of Humanities (Elmira College), <i>Lecteur de langue anglaise</i> (École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique, Nantes, France) and Université du Maine (Le Mans, France), Adult Education instructor of Spanish (Concord-Carlisle Adult & Community Education, Concord, MA), High school mid-year replacement teacher of Spanish (Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, MA), Community college instructor of Spanish (Mount Wachussetts Community College, Gardener, MA), Language program director in Martinique, France (ASA International Adventures, Amronk, NY), Lecturer of French (Northeastern University, Boston, MA), High School teacher of French (Nazareth Academy, Wakefield, MA), Shipyard welder (General Dynamics), radiation monitor (Groton submarine base), FDIC bank examiner (South Dakota), interpreter/translator (Le Mans auto race—11 consecutive years), census taker…</p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Publications</b></span> See <a href="http://theamericandissident.org/g_tod_slone_books.html">http://theamericandissident.org/g_tod_slone_books.html</a><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>. </b></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0b0204; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This CM is a work in progress…</p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-568872348627822172022-08-08T06:19:00.004-07:002022-08-08T06:19:40.721-07:00Corey Farrenkopf<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMOx34NVDm_bUtnIw0uDJjWxW6rnyhXGpSpuBcEK_XVmihem1rq9joW2A1CDHe_t9zfghIRbbFxrTDOwcIeeKdXGti7IcGAyg5eXAeqwtgKJYafdIbAOWoInbYsLXn6Yn56Fy-_6dJdZYuGxbeiQgjWq2Yy-uMPFpmu5AxZYaUC312I1BINjrnQnEyvw/s2197/Cape%20Cod%20Poetry%20Review-Farrenkopf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2111" data-original-width="2197" height="586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMOx34NVDm_bUtnIw0uDJjWxW6rnyhXGpSpuBcEK_XVmihem1rq9joW2A1CDHe_t9zfghIRbbFxrTDOwcIeeKdXGti7IcGAyg5eXAeqwtgKJYafdIbAOWoInbYsLXn6Yn56Fy-_6dJdZYuGxbeiQgjWq2Yy-uMPFpmu5AxZYaUC312I1BINjrnQnEyvw/w611-h586/Cape%20Cod%20Poetry%20Review-Farrenkopf.jpg" width="611" /></a></div><br /><p></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-25992625335718276692022-08-07T05:33:00.012-07:002022-08-07T05:37:24.828-07:00Larry Brown Cape Cod Times<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The following cartoon and counter-essay were not permitted in the pages of the <i>Cape Cod Times</i>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">.......................................</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw1EVu_Tt-_zIeXc1Rdu-50N5ba28PXZYpX8i-Xsmxi1Q9yQHT32DBZBLDYtOU-RdZTOAHhmH1sxoZsO51UH-9FyplydwNxEKVFVL6jSzqQ_SUtDf26c1Atf6bOAoTdu-e73d272kVhWU1IUNHTQ099UT9yn3l0vXMDxmvfmMRVP5cdwIjKdib0RWzaw/s2380/Cape%20Cod%20Times-Larry%20Brown.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2380" data-original-width="1993" height="682" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw1EVu_Tt-_zIeXc1Rdu-50N5ba28PXZYpX8i-Xsmxi1Q9yQHT32DBZBLDYtOU-RdZTOAHhmH1sxoZsO51UH-9FyplydwNxEKVFVL6jSzqQ_SUtDf26c1Atf6bOAoTdu-e73d272kVhWU1IUNHTQ099UT9yn3l0vXMDxmvfmMRVP5cdwIjKdib0RWzaw/w637-h682/Cape%20Cod%20Times-Larry%20Brown.jpg" width="637" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">..............................................................</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">White Bad, Black Good</span></b></p><p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">First, the term “liberal” ought to imply real belief in free speech, vigorous debate, and equality. Unfortunately, today, the term “liberal” has come to mean left-wing Democrat-Party partisanship against free speech, vigorous debate, and equality. True liberalism has been replaced by the faux-liberalism of diversity, inclusion, and equity, Orwellian code for unity of thought, exclusion of unwanted ideas, and racial inequality of opportunity. Thus, the term left-wing ought to be separated from, not equated with, the term “liberal.” Second, differences, including height, attractiveness, sex, intellectual capacity, physical strength, skin color, wealth, etc., actually do exist… and to judge is natural… but to stereotype on the basis of any of those differences inevitably defies reality. Humans do have the capacity to weigh their judgments in accord with reality. Sadly, many do not do that. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Critical Race Theory teaches the white bad/black good (victim) stereotype falsity, which supports the adoption of double-standards falsity, including all whites are racists, while all blacks are not. Falsity only ends up harming those who propagate it, who do so in an effort to somehow protect and empower. Columnist Larry Brown and his <i>Cape Cod Times</i> have evidently embraced, rather than question and challenge, falsities pushed by CRT. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Brown’s column, “I’m not racist, but …,” begs to be critically examined. But those like Brown and the <i>Times</i> are opposed to questioning and challenging of their left-wing—not liberal—narrative. The <i>Times</i> over the past decade, for example, has absolutely refused to publish anything I’ve sent it, including an account of my being permanently banned without warning or due process from my neighborhood library, Sturgis Library, for merely questioning and challenging the de facto policies adopted by its library director, Lucy Loomis, which, in particular, contradict its written policy that “libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view.” For the <i>Times</i>, I illustrate “wrong think” and thus simply do not exist.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And so Brown begins his column by admitting to his white privilege, though doesn’t quite put it that way: “When I was a boy, we had Black maids come in once a week to help my mother.” Well, when I was a boy, my family never had maids, black or white. And indeed, white maids do exist, though perhaps not in Brown’s fantasy world. Evoking that fact clearly is harmful to his left-wing narrative. Now, I wonder how many maids the Obamas have on the Vineyard. Are they white or black or both? To pose that question could, however, be damaging to the stereotype adopted by Brown and the <i>Times</i>. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is intellectually belittling for Brown to evoke one convenient example of his white mother sending a get-well card to one of her black maids, who purportedly stated that to be “the only deliberate act of kindness she had experienced from a white person in her whole life.” In other words, white bad/black good. Now, as mentioned, when I was a boy, my family never had maids. But to state that would be an affront to the white-privilege stereotype, espoused by Brown. Just the same, I wonder what the three black youths might have said to each other after they beat and robbed me in Baton Rouge one morning. The only deliberate act of kindness they’d experienced from a white person in their whole lives? After all, they went on a shopping spree with the credit card they stole from me. Brown states regarding the maid: “Think for a moment what that means. Minorities tell us all the time that they experience life in America differently.” Evidently, my experience contradicts Brown’s stereotype. In essence, one example (one experience) should never be used to stereotype entire races. How can Brown, a Cape Cod Academy humanities teacher, not comprehend that? Well, I certainly made sure my experience didn’t; sadly, Brown made sure his did.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“There’s more than one kind of racist,” argues Brown. Yes, there are black racists and white racists. Ah, but he does not state it that way at all. After all, he has been indoctrinated that blacks cannot be/are not racists. Imagine if the <i>Times</i> had published an op-ed on black racists. Pipe-dream? You bet! Brown argues that “Class One racists react viscerally to people of color, often to gays, mixed-race couples, mixed-race ads on TV.” What I am against is the undemocratic (authoritarian) social engineering effected behind the scenes by societal elites. Clearly, “mixed-race ads” form an integral part of such social engineering, which seeks in the long run to terminate nations by mixing populations via population importations and to eliminate, in a racist endeavor, the white race (consider the “tanning of America” ideology as propagated, for example, by Tracey Ross in <i>The Root</i> blog on <i>Washington Post</i>). Brown argues without an iota of proof of assertion: “They’re angry when issues of slavery are taught in school, ‘dragging our country through the mud’.” Well, I’m angry because in general the truth, the whole truth regarding slavery is rarely if ever taught in government schools (see, for example, “<a href="https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/1620-critical-response-1619-project-danusha-v-goska/">1620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project</a>"). </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Sadly, Brown’s entire piece is one-sided. Whites are racist, while there is no mention of racist blacks. White supremacy is mentioned, while black supremacy (e.g., Black Panthers and Nation of Islam) is not mentioned. Brown argues, “It’s precisely the failure to recognize the harm in supremist [sic] thinking that the left wants to address.” The reality, however, is highly political, which is why the left actually wants to promote a sort of POC supremacy aka CRT, which will increase its political power… or so it hopes. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Brown argues that “A humane and law-abiding society should want to isolate and contain its most violent members.” Well, we agree on that point, but is it not the left-wingers, who chose to do nothing regarding the violent Antifa/BLM rioters? In fact, did they not seek to release more such violent persons from the nation’s jails, as well as eliminate bail requisites and permit many of those arrested to walk free? </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Brown’s left good/right bad essay concludes: “After half a century, liberals have failed to shame racists out of their racism. We have to <i>argue</i> them out of it with the love and faith decency demands.” And yet “love and faith” are certainly NOT what the left-wing has been pushing, but rather anti-white racist hatred, reparations, severe school indoctrination, and Marxist ideology. Sadly, in America today truth is not rewarded, whereas ideological adherence is rewarded…</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">……………………………………………………</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">NB: Brown’s email address is not available on the <i>Times’</i> website or on that of Cape Cod Academy. Cocoon buffered!</span></p><p>
</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #191c1f; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #191c1f; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; font: 10.0px 'Trebuchet MS'; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p> </p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-17245242529868992392022-07-27T11:50:00.009-07:002022-07-28T14:11:33.353-07:00Doug Lederman<p><span style="font-family: arial;">The following aquarelle was created in 2009 by P. Maudit (G. Tod Slone).</span> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidyAJdSUT7EQ9aaBGAiTZHIKa-SsjJa7gBa0yeah6tQ4zTEDxFVIZWUqN5pMOaazorhKpB-sw2BKew44eQ1Kjmudtz6qvIv3crAijqHi2nh1HC1uDCk4bUz4V6ONflMKnd-AymR-j__6P8VspO00I2SEM89jq8T7q5b97QWYiVMfnzpXlmZjj_IRCNnQ/s1753/Plate6-InsideHigherEd.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1274" data-original-width="1753" height="552" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidyAJdSUT7EQ9aaBGAiTZHIKa-SsjJa7gBa0yeah6tQ4zTEDxFVIZWUqN5pMOaazorhKpB-sw2BKew44eQ1Kjmudtz6qvIv3crAijqHi2nh1HC1uDCk4bUz4V6ONflMKnd-AymR-j__6P8VspO00I2SEM89jq8T7q5b97QWYiVMfnzpXlmZjj_IRCNnQ/w657-h552/Plate6-InsideHigherEd.jpg" width="657" /></a></div><p></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-66534157986871772482022-05-23T16:57:00.032-07:002022-06-07T07:47:51.037-07:00Cultural Center of Cape Cod<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>For the unsurprising reaction to the broadside below, read the account of my protest</span> at the Cultural Center in celebration of National Poetaster Month, "<span style="caret-color: rgb(65, 62, 58); color: #413e3a;">Nasty: Notes from a Protest and an Encounter with the Executive Director of the Cultural Center of Cape Cod," </span>here: <a href="https://www.newenglishreview.org/articles/nasty-notes-from-a-protest-and-an-encounter-with-the-executive-director-of-the-cultural-center-of-cape-cod/">https://www.newenglishreview.org/articles/nasty-notes-from-a-protest-and-an-encounter-with-the-executive-director-of-the-cultural-center-of-cape-cod/</a>. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; text-align: center;">..........................</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; text-align: center;"><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; text-align: center;">An <i>American Dissident</i> Free-Speech Broadside </b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; text-align: center;">(April, 27, 2022)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i>The American Dissident</i>,<b> </b>a 501 (c)3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy & Dissidence (Publishing Biannually since 1998)</p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">G. Tod Slone, PhD and Founding Editor <a href="mailto:todslone@hotmail.com"><b>todslone@hotmail.com</b></a> <a href="http://www.theamericandissident.org/"><b>www.theamericandissident.org</b></a> <a href="http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/"><b>wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com</b></a></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">217 Commerce Rd., Barnstable, MA 02630</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0b0205; font-family: "Lithos Pro"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.8px;"><b>“Some of the Arts for Some of Us”</b></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0b0205; font-family: "Lithos Pro"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.4px;">the Castration, Cooptation, and Corralling of Cape Cod Poets</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0b0205; font-family: "Lithos Pro"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3px;">(A “Dangerous” Poet’s “Dangerous” Statement to the Cultural Center of Cape Cod)</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0b0205; font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0b0205; font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Estoit-il lors temps de moy taire? </i></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0b0205; font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span>—François Villon, “Ballade du Guichetier Garnier”</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0b0205; font-family: Verdana; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 8px;"> </p>
<p style="color: #0b0404; font-family: Verdana; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION is in serious danger of extinction when poets do not give a damn if another poet is ostracized, censored, and/or banned! That is the sad reality here on Cape Cod, where local poets are far more concerned with government grant money, invitations, publications, tenure, and curatorial/censorial positions, than with FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION. </p>
<p style="color: #0b0404; font-family: Verdana; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> The Cultural Center of Cape Cod—its Learning Director Diane Giardi—refused to accord me permission to read at its National Poetry Month “Poetry Marathon.” Why? Quite simply, the apparatchiks at the Center are unable to brook hardcore criticism—my criticism! Its motto, “<b>All the Arts for All of Us</b>,” embodies their grotesque hypocrisy. My art and my poetry have been excluded from its Orwellian realm of <b>INCLUSION IS EXCLUSION</b>. “Join us for an all-day Poetry Marathon in celebration of the beauty and power of poetry in all its forms!” But certainly not the power of poetry in my form! </p>
<p style="color: #0b0404; font-family: Verdana; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Why should culture and its apparatchiks be exempt from criticism? As editor of a poetry journal, I openly ask for criticism and publish the harshest received in each issue. And I do NOT ostracize and ban! If my criticism is not on target, then it is up to the Giardis and Demeulenaeres to prove it. And if they did, I’d have no problem issuing an apology and correction. How is the Center’s motto not hypocritical?! Well, the <b>cultural apparatchiks</b> have yet to respond! And so, as a rejected poet and artist, I stand outside today in protest. </p>
<p style="color: #0b0404; font-family: Verdana; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black;"> In the beginning of this month, April, </span>I wrote the Center’s PR Coordinator, who inspired a poem. Too bad I can’t read it at the “Poetry Marathon”! The PR-Apparatchik chose not to respond. Imagine, a PR-Coordinator for poetry! On Cape Cod, <b>the Chamber of Commerce has coopted, castrated and corralled the poets!</b> </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #131312; font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 50.4px; text-align: justify;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1px;">To Becky Renaud, PR Coordinator, Cultural Center of Cape Cod: Well, nothing personal here—I don’t know you. But my request to read a couple of poems like the ones below at your April open-mic event was simply ignored (i.e., no response) by your Learning Director Diane Giardi. Sadly, it really does seem that criticism of culture is strictly <i>verboten </i>on Cape Cod. Please do at least contemplate that thought and what it implies for the state of democracy here in the midst of the tourist industry. Fear not! I am neither violent, nor do I ever make threats. However, I am an ardent critic, especially regarding that which is taboo in the realm of establishment critics. Finally, perhaps you might convince Mme Giardi to open her closed doors and permit me to read some of my poetry…</span> </p>
<p style="color: #0b0404; font-family: Verdana; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Oddly, my last solo protest was precisely two years ago on April 27th in front of Sturgis Library in Barnstable, which was celebrating Kurt Vonnegut. On the sidewalk, I stood with a sign and handed out flyers. If I had stood on library property, director Lucy Loomis would have called the cops. Why? Well, in 2012, she’d <b>permanently banned</b> me from her publicly-funded library w/o warning, w/o due process. Since she refused to provide a written reason, a poet friend in Georgia, Russell Streur, who has a certain expertise in dealing with corrupt organizations, contacted the Massachusetts State Secretary of Records, which nine months later forced Sturgis to open its records (see <a href="http://sturgisbansdissident.blogspot.com">sturgisbansdissident.blogspot.com</a>). Only one short email from Loomis to the trustees revealed the reason for the banning: “for the safety of the staff and public” (see <a href="http://theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_library.html">theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_library.html</a>). In vain, I contacted every pertinent organization on Cape Cod, including <i>Cape Cod Poetry Review</i>, Cape Cod Writers Center, Barnstable County Human Rights Commission, <i>Cape Cod Times, Barnstable Patriot, Provincetown Arts, Provincetown Banner, </i>Town Counselors of Barnstable, Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, and the 25 library directors of the Clams Library System (see <a href="https://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2017/10/free-speech-organizations-apathetic-and.html">wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2017/10/free-speech-organizations-apathetic-and.html</a>). Not one person gave a damn! Not one Cape Cod poet, artist, or writer gave a damn! And yet my very civil rights are still being denied today because I am NOT permitted to attend any cultural or political events held at my neighborhood library, where the “<b>Generative Poetry Workshop</b>” is being run by.paid-poet hacks Bellinger, Miller, Bonanni, and Chen. Do they care? Of course not! Is there one poet here who cares? Likely not! Curatorial censorship of expression IS NOT FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION!</p>
<p style="color: #0b0404; font-family: Verdana; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 10px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lithos Pro"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Vive la liberté de parole, câlisse ! ! !</b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lithos Pro"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lithos Pro"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lithos Pro"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYSCGLnooiBtdjw-80UaKCu_-WRYMqpbbi92nQzhkyewpQVdtEsuYTw9ycLZJ-_edcOk4cv3q_RgNeZWoe1ALZiXVdfrcZq3-Y6E2XNBFLSus25BWJX-ULbnkzcXZRqzPi-lkpVArr-oijL-jU7GJqbLpp0_-EeAn9s5DNgyMXJaDqbDrdUgpQi4L7Gw/s1458/Cultural%20Center-Molly%20Demeulenaere.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1458" data-original-width="1261" height="724" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYSCGLnooiBtdjw-80UaKCu_-WRYMqpbbi92nQzhkyewpQVdtEsuYTw9ycLZJ-_edcOk4cv3q_RgNeZWoe1ALZiXVdfrcZq3-Y6E2XNBFLSus25BWJX-ULbnkzcXZRqzPi-lkpVArr-oijL-jU7GJqbLpp0_-EeAn9s5DNgyMXJaDqbDrdUgpQi4L7Gw/w627-h724/Cultural%20Center-Molly%20Demeulenaere.jpg" width="627" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b><p></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lithos Pro"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>.......................................................</b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lithos Pro"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lithos Pro"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDA39N7tSglVm-vVUqJRMmvKdVTfxpovtwyiGc1VKJY5I5Ym1s7BYeNOobiRB6pTZoc76XNPOAuOusLGfcnDnQGZ0brpX5MSSuSKCniIXFM4zoW2wqyvKyZjMsGeeuEeClnoa5YrZHo3FXkRNzIz2ltA1IGrB_WDLiZL7AYlEWtwAUxS6nbTIA09ojtA/s2197/Cape%20Cod%20Poetry%20Review-Farrenkopf.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2111" data-original-width="2197" height="596" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDA39N7tSglVm-vVUqJRMmvKdVTfxpovtwyiGc1VKJY5I5Ym1s7BYeNOobiRB6pTZoc76XNPOAuOusLGfcnDnQGZ0brpX5MSSuSKCniIXFM4zoW2wqyvKyZjMsGeeuEeClnoa5YrZHo3FXkRNzIz2ltA1IGrB_WDLiZL7AYlEWtwAUxS6nbTIA09ojtA/w622-h596/Cape%20Cod%20Poetry%20Review-Farrenkopf.jpg" width="622" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-49149795480545148272022-05-06T04:58:00.002-07:002022-05-06T04:58:25.745-07:00Experiments in Free Speech & Democracy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk-Qt6miqKq2CvvANf7rcIBusYT1OTAAnX1IOCyZxtPV7BMzw6WTgUsLhFGY-7TvJjFeZ7FPU4W0RfFdu3RxtMymYyDUxZ7bieBcftWawKz_IxFGichA5JedF8Mstae-H3vTHwpvwttlmjkW-6HQF1Dw6BVuRW96cwB8KMgoaqPFUdsaDet5I755y7Tw/s1126/Poets-Charles%20Bernstein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="906" data-original-width="1126" height="511" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk-Qt6miqKq2CvvANf7rcIBusYT1OTAAnX1IOCyZxtPV7BMzw6WTgUsLhFGY-7TvJjFeZ7FPU4W0RfFdu3RxtMymYyDUxZ7bieBcftWawKz_IxFGichA5JedF8Mstae-H3vTHwpvwttlmjkW-6HQF1Dw6BVuRW96cwB8KMgoaqPFUdsaDet5I755y7Tw/w636-h511/Poets-Charles%20Bernstein.jpg" width="636" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><strong>University of Pennsylvania
Open Letter to the Professors of the English Department </strong>
The American Dissident, a 501 c3 nonprofit journal of literature, democracy, and dissidence, would like to know what you think, as individuals and, even moreso, what your students think. The journal believes that all icons and institutions should be open game for hardcore criticism. Oddly, or rather conveniently, however, the large majority of established-order poets seem to think that poetry organizations, celebrities, prizes, and journals should be off limits. And indeed, established-order poets tend to live in protective cocoons of incessant praise and funding. It is next to impossible for outsider organizations like The American Dissident to get satire to penetrate those buffered cocoons.
The American Dissident is a firm believer in free speech and vigorous debate, democracy’s cornerstones. Yet how can debate be vigorous when, for example, the Academy of American Poets censors opinions it does not like and its professor chancellors respond with indifference (see http://www.theamericandissident.org/AcademyAmericanPoets.htm). And when most college professors seem to favor censorship (either turning a blind eye to it, preferring euphemisms like moderation, civility, and good taste, and/or proferring to be too busy to be concerned), democracy itself is in peril. What do you think? Have you perfected excuses as part of rationalizing your silence?
The cartoon above, inspired by a brief review appearing in Entertainment Weekly, which normally critiques the love-life and attire of Hollywood celebrities, satirizes your colleague Charles Bernstein. Yes, yes, we all know that he is revered by the academic/literary established order and has climbed that ladder, wearing blinders wherever necessary. But should criticism of Bernstein be taboo? What do you think?
For more unusual critique of those who are rarely if ever criticized, examine The American Dissident, which firmly believes that poetry should be more than mere intellectual ENTERTAINMENT and diversion or bourgeois past-time. In fact, why not subscribe to the journal (only $20/year) to help expose your students to alternative negative viewpoints regarding literature and the literary establishment. Are the doors of the English department at the University of Pennsylvania like those of so many other universities hermetically sealed against uncomfortable outside critique? Do you help your students create and fortify “mind-forged manacles” like those observed by William Blake? Your SILENCE will certainly support that hypothesis!
Thank you for your cordial attention.
N.B.: Notice of this blog was sent to The Daily Pennsylvanian student newspaper and the following English instructors and professors:
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Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-71448726112594093592022-05-01T09:18:00.001-07:002022-05-01T09:18:30.609-07:00Carl Phillips Jackson Poetry Prize<p> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi66S6YheyUiYre6Lx7Jmct6PQfwdb11agwoT6T2WdckTzEUoSCwd8mHlyJhMQyTrDZpzzewMhyoiFyhPDZ_1VSMuBn3ds6fvHgg2bjeqdt5HG1WL5am0NzHnyr9z_Ue2nZzd6bdueLqXtcnChbBBWsLLYsP18u8uBo5z2XlakoEgKq_-qaS78OkugUXw/s2571/AD42-Back%20Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2571" data-original-width="1650" height="1006" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi66S6YheyUiYre6Lx7Jmct6PQfwdb11agwoT6T2WdckTzEUoSCwd8mHlyJhMQyTrDZpzzewMhyoiFyhPDZ_1VSMuBn3ds6fvHgg2bjeqdt5HG1WL5am0NzHnyr9z_Ue2nZzd6bdueLqXtcnChbBBWsLLYsP18u8uBo5z2XlakoEgKq_-qaS78OkugUXw/w645-h1006/AD42-Back%20Cover.jpg" width="645" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">...................................................................</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Above is the back cover of issue #42 of The American Dissident. It features the Jackson Poetry Prize recipient (see last paragraph of the editorial with its regard). Below is the editorial for that issue. I post this today because I am in the midst of writing an essay on the new Jackson Poetry Prize winner, </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Sonia Sanchez. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">.............................................................................................</div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i>The American Dissident</i>’s prime purpose is NOT poetry for the sake of poetry, nor is it to help spread poetry as a form of intellectual entertainment—a highbrow game of words. Its prime purpose is to serve as a rare—very, very rare—platform for hardcore criticism against the academic/literary establishment—friend of the chambers of commerce—, including <i>Poets & Writers</i> magazine, <i>Poetry</i> magazine (run by Poetry Foundation and its $200 million Eli Lilly drug—money donation), the Academy of American Poets, laureate and inaugural icons, Pulitzer Prize, Guggenheim, MacArthur Foundation, the nation’s college English departments, etc. When poetry fails to question and challenge that which promotes it, then it becomes a palatable part of the ruling-class machine of castration, cooptation, and corralling… </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
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<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Papyrus; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Editorial</p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lithos Pro"; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>A Metastasizing Cancer</b></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">But you can’t turn literature into a business. But without business, there won’t be any more literature.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>—<i>A Business Affair </i>(1994 film)</p>
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<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">The front cover of this issue features the Freedom Forum Institute… with a touch of satire, of course. For the critical essay I wrote on that organization, “The Fake (Free) Expression Institute,” see <a href="http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm?frm=190705&sec_id=190705">www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm?frm=190705&sec_id=190705</a>. The Institute constitutes a pro-censorship organization, backed by the Democrat Party. To proclaim an opinion as “misinformation” and thus eliminate it constitutes an egregious act of censorship, a shallow justification for the reduction of freedom of expression. Democrat-Party-aligned Big Tech (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Google) have radically increased de-platforming. The former President of the United States has been censored, as have critics of autocrat-vaccine mandates, critics of Critical Race Theory, critics of Black Lives Matter, critics of the Hunter/Joe Biden scandal, etc. Communism and socialism do NOT embrace freedom of expression! Autocrats do NOT embrace freedom of expression! White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declared in typical hack-circular reasoning: </p>
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<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Arial Narrow"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36px; text-align: justify;">Our view continues to be though that every platform, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, any other platform that is disseminating information to millions of Americans has a responsibility to crack down on disinformation.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 10px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">“Crack down on disinformation” is, of course, simply a convenient euphemistic term for censorship! Psaki fails to address the fundamental problem with Democrat-Party encouragement for increased censorship: the politically-tainted subjectivity inherently involved in determining what is and what is not “disinformation.” Roman poet Juvenal evoked another fundamental problem: <i>Quis custodiet ipsos custodes</i>? In essence, who will watch over the gatekeepers of information? </p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Psaki’s statement incarnates the metastasizing cancer in the heart of freedom of expression, the very fundament of democracy. Power elites like her hate freedom of expression with a passion and always have and always will! </p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">The back cover of this issue illustrates the sad state of establishment poetry in America. The verse spewed by poet Carl Phillips in the aquarelle somehow earned him the Jackson Poetry Prize ($75,000). In elite poetry circles, innocuity rules! Why? Because innocuity evidently does not threaten elites at the academic/literary helm. It assures absence of accountability…</p></div>G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239569862679528067.post-5531470302739983742022-04-23T04:49:00.018-07:002022-04-23T05:05:51.034-07:00Dana Levin, Poet<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFj1p1CqNM-ND3keEx0vQOK8fPnxM4ztJSYfvka96BeM3ISMob5LFU-fHnl7cXGyc5p8zEWOlk8tf5GUA8JpAa9yTpCOQWA_G4TTTrbfB29WSxcTBpXRVZw-nsERfnbA1SXplvrjP9_dflyKKJuBNkvspaLD-RAeloYyjprA8Z-HYMi1-h-kfRxAWBag/s1642/Poets-Dana%20Levin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1611" data-original-width="1642" height="557" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFj1p1CqNM-ND3keEx0vQOK8fPnxM4ztJSYfvka96BeM3ISMob5LFU-fHnl7cXGyc5p8zEWOlk8tf5GUA8JpAa9yTpCOQWA_G4TTTrbfB29WSxcTBpXRVZw-nsERfnbA1SXplvrjP9_dflyKKJuBNkvspaLD-RAeloYyjprA8Z-HYMi1-h-kfRxAWBag/w568-h557/Poets-Dana%20Levin.jpg" width="568" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">.............................................................................................</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">No email address on the internet available for Dana Levin. So, I sent the above cartoon to the Great Brick Wall of <i>Poets & Writers</i> magazine, which interviewed/advertised Levin. In fact, that magazine is nothing but a platform for smiley-face advertising of poets. It incarnates "Poetry Is Dead."</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">........................................................</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>The Spineless</b></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(For Poet Dana Levin, who incarnates this poem)</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Those who buffer themselves </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">from outside criticism, </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">by, for example, </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">keeping their contact info secret, </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">tend to be weak, </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">narcissistic—self-laudatory—, </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and ideologically conformed and confined. </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Just look at their me-me-me websites</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">—mere lists of their establishment credentials.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Such persons ought to stay the hell </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>out of the limelight, </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">instead of constantly seeking to be under it,</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span> </span>ever slobbering for renown and anointment. </p>
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<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Notes on “The Spineless”</b></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">From an idea— </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">a taboo thought—, </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I tend to create a poem, </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">which tends to render it</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">not a poem, </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">though only in the eyes </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of the bards in control </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of the poetry establishment</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #181817; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">—the money, the platforms, the positions. </p><div><br /></div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><br />G. Tod Slonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08298151154368372719noreply@blogger.com0