The following is the front cover for the next issue of The American Dissident 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...
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To Prof Poets Kevin Carey (Salem State University), Anne Pluto (Lesley University), Lloyd Schwartz (University of Massachusetts), and Daniel Tobin (Emerson College):
Are you perchance aware that I, as a dissident poet and editor, was not permitted to attend your reading at Sturgis Library, 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 American Library Association’s) collection development statement, in particular, “libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view." Read the letter from the State Secretary of Records 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.
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 Sturgis Library, 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 Cultural Center of Cape Cod open its doors to my critical aquarelles? Of course not! PROHIBITED!
Currently, I am contemplating an idea using the four of you for the front cover of the next issue, #44, of The American Dissident. 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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
Au plaisir,
G. Tod Slone, Ed.
The American Dissident
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