A Forum for Vigorous Debate, Cornerstone of Democracy

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

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

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Poet Laureate Ada Limon

Below is the front cover of the latest issue of The American Dissident, #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.

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May 13, 2023, 7:05 AM

To Rigoberto Gonzalez,

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...

Au plaisir,

G. Tod Slone (PhD—Université de Nantes, FR), aka P. Maudit, Founding Editor (1998)

The American Dissident, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence

www.theamericandissident.org

wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com

todslone@hotmail.com

217 Commerce Rd.

Barnstable, MA 02630



May 23, 2023, 3:43 PM

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. 


Regards,

Rigoberto


Rigoberto González [rigonzal@newark.rutgers.edu]

Distinguished Professor of English

Director, Rutgers-Newark MFA Program in Creative Writing

43 Bleeker St.

Newark, NJ 07102



May 25, 2023, 7:50 PM

Hola Rigoberto,

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.  

Au plaisir, 

G. Tod


[No further response]




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