Open Letter to Political Leaders: Action, Not Tributes and Rhetoric
To All Elected Local, State, and National Political Leadership:
No American needs anymore to name specifically the tragedy or the media and political responses because all have become both commonplace and predictable.
I will name nonetheless, not because these are unique, but because they are sobering messages that must not be ignored.
In recent days, a bomb exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and during the subsequent news cycle as well as political tributes and rhetoric, the U.S. Senate failed to act on gun legislation that was prompted by the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting that also spurred 24-hours media coverage and political tributes and rhetoric.
I want first to note that as a scholar and poet, I understand the need to frame tragedy in words. I wrote commentaries—"'They're All Our Children,'" "Misreading the Right to Bear Arms"—and a poem, "calculating (the erased)," after the school shooting and was once again moved to poetry, "they ran (15 April 2013)," in the wake of the marathon bombing.
Also I concede that words matter, and for me, writing is a type of activism.
However, like Hamlet came to feel about marriage, I am compelled to say to politicians, We will have no more tributes and rhetoric.
No American needs anymore to name specifically the tragedy or the media and political responses because all have become both commonplace and predictable.
I will name nonetheless, not because these are unique, but because they are sobering messages that must not be ignored.
In recent days, a bomb exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and during the subsequent news cycle as well as political tributes and rhetoric, the U.S. Senate failed to act on gun legislation that was prompted by the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting that also spurred 24-hours media coverage and political tributes and rhetoric.
I want first to note that as a scholar and poet, I understand the need to frame tragedy in words. I wrote commentaries—"'They're All Our Children,'" "Misreading the Right to Bear Arms"—and a poem, "calculating (the erased)," after the school shooting and was once again moved to poetry, "they ran (15 April 2013)," in the wake of the marathon bombing.
Also I concede that words matter, and for me, writing is a type of activism.
However, like Hamlet came to feel about marriage, I am compelled to say to politicians, We will have no more tributes and rhetoric.
