----------- Forwarded message ----------- To subscribe to the low-volume Mad Cow Culture email announcement list: http://www.madcowculture.com/list.html ====== http://www.madcowculture.com/madcow-00077.html MCVEIGH'S DEATH SPURS OUTCRY AGAINST POETRY By Mad Cow Culture (madcowculture@madcowculture.com) June 17, 2001 By misappropriating as his death bed chant "Invictus," the famous poem by W.E.Henley, mad cow bomber Timothy McVeigh has created an infamous stink, raising important legal, philosophical and academic issues. W.E.Henley IV, great-grandson of the poet, is furious that a mass murder would pervert lines written by a relative who overcame enormous suffering to excel as a magazine writer. The great-grandson, who has threatened to sue the McVeigh estate for "malicious misappropriation of iambic pentameter," thinks authorities should have at least amputated one of the bomber's legs so he, like the poet, "could be one with the poem." The original Henley lived to have quite a future. Robert Louis Stevenson used Henley as the prototype for Long John Silver of "Treasure Island." Rodin sculpted Henley's bust which is now found at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Great-grandson Henley said "McVeigh committed another crime by appropriating the poem without the suffering. Even the right wing wackos understand this. No one is even buying bogus McVeigh memorabilia on Ebay. The guy is history." McVeigh might be history but not the fuss caused by his deathbed invocation of "Invictus." The Dallas School Board has opted to remove all literature textbooks which contain the poem from its classrooms. Board President Dr. Jerry James said in a prepared report "We will not expose impressionable students to a poem that has been used by a mass murderer to justify and celebrate his wicked acts. We are firm in our conviction that we will not be party to making this fiend a cult hero. In fact we intend to be master of our fate, and captain of our soul. I realize there are some First Amendment issues involved, but the primary concern for the Dallas School Board is the health and welfare of our children." The Dallas News has reported that the Board's edict might go further. Internet chat rooms are suggesting that during his high school years and during his service in the Gulf War, McVeigh was actually an avid reader of poetry. His high school sweetheart Jane Jones has allegedly claimed that McVeigh was an avid reader of Dylan Thomas "Do Not Go Gentle," Hamlet's soliloquy, and Robert Frost's "Out, Out--". Military friends have indicated that McVeigh had read "Atlas Shrugged" at least six times and had a fascination with Ahab in "Moby Dick." There is some speculation that McVeigh was secret admirer of Walt Whitman and has a particular love for "Song of Myself". These post-mortem finding have dismayed members of the now defunct, bankrupt and disgraced "McVeigh Fan Club" who lament that the "bomber should have gone out showing his sensitive, compassionate side." The Dallas School Boards, however, according to the Dallas News, is dismayed that this reading list, whether apocryphal or not, will become tainted by an association with a murderer. According to Dr. James, "The last thing we want is for students to be thinking that characters in Melville, Whitman, or Shakespeare are to be admired and emulated because a mass murderer embraced them. Frankly, we'd rather our students not read these works that are even more likely now to contaminate their minds." The Dallas School Board has not yet decided on a broader textbook ban but already textbook companies are getting the message and without any apparent coercion, are significantly reducing the amount of Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, Crane, and Twain in American Literature textbooks. Some textbook companies are simply creating entire literature texts around excerpts from the Bible, which has met with the quiet approval of school boards in Texas. In Dr. James opinion this effort "serves as a reasonable extension of President Bush's faith-based initiative. After all, there are no surprises in the Bible, and we are reasonably certain the murderer never read this book." Not everyone is so sanguine about these developments. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has already sought an injunction in Dallas Superior Court against this "flagrant violation of First Amendment Freedoms." The ACLU has lost the first round the court, which invited further briefs, wrote that "local school boards have the right to decide curriculum content. It is not the court's job to find motive." The ACLU has vowed to fight this "creeping religious hegemony that threatens our schools." Whatever the legality of the Dallas decision, school boards across America are looking intently at the drama and the court's response to date. School boards in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Mississippi and Florida who have already removed "The Exorcist', "Huck Finn," "Black Like Me," and other books from school libraries seem more emboldened. City schools in Detroit, Michigan have already removed most of the Great Books of Western Literature from school libraries and seem certain to complete the task, given the mood of the country. The American Library Association ALA) realizes it has a major battle on its hands. Dr. Gertrude Green, ALA President, said "We must resist punishing our literature and authors for the despicable acts of a mass murderer. Surely I don't have to remind people of the book burnings in Nazi Germany. Books were seen as the cause of Germany's problems." "Even school boards that act within the law will end up with a curriculum filled with antiseptic literature written by second rate authors. That is surely not what this country wants. After all, America is a multicultural society." ### ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- End forwarded message -----