Monday, 25 April, 2005

Extracurricular Poetry One of the several reasons that it took the better part of a week to write that last post is that I felt the need to drag out my undergraduate constitutional Law text books after listening to last Tuesdays Diane Rehm show and re read an number of cases. But that will be a future post. Another of the reasons was Lulu Barnachea's annual poetry diversity brown bag lunch here at McKeldin. This where we attempt workplace diversity and understanding between cultures by sharing our favorite poetry. Tran had decided to read one, Khun Mat an Kin, by a poet named Lam Thi My Da, from a book which had her poems in the original Vietnamese and an english translation (book is called Green Rice I believe). And also read another folk poem she translated herself. She wanted me to come too and listen. I figured it would be just as easy to write a new poem than to think of one I liked to read. It nearly was. So I may as well make a post out of it Tran's translation of Cong On Sinh Thanh reads as follows: Parents merit. Father's work as the great mountain Mothers love as a source of waterfalls Loving mother and respecting father fulfilling piety to parents is a filial child. I ended up writing two poems for this, again the exact reasoning here escapes me. And it seems to me it will probably take two maybe three more before its done. In California There is a sidewalk somewhere in California I imagine this - see it only in this way it is on an ordinary street in a transparent part of town away from the water which is not far behind a hill The sidewalk ends here where I see it the road disappears on to another part of town The walk gives way to dirt, gravel, to small crushed manufactures of paper and metal gathered around a street sign, a vending box for a county paper The scrub grass stays clear for a distance then takes control Gathering thickly weeds creep through cracks at pavements edge shortening its reach even as far as its reach goes the dawn rises behind us who scan the low hills limb beyond which the green land slopes down to street then across down sand, blade sharp grass and more sand the foaming water draws back down smoothing sea-saturated grains flat hissing as water drains away under them tumbling round in ceaseless careless turn as cycled wave comes over them again About the Oceans The oceans have their place they pry the compass points apart maintaining order, decorum, arrangement in this world a way they have shared by mountains, rivers drawing lines across the land but oceans accomplish this better their opaque surfaces shield depths where still great mountains could lie unseen. From shoreline, to shoreline opposite a rivers length extended yet of equal breadth, a wilderness mutable unmappable indescribable except by immediate part and singular moment Yet with a certain willful defiance we treat them as paths (blazed by a thousand flashing feeding forms) wherever water gathers deep to the land we declare a port and having named this harbor in hulls no more than husks set out to find another. There was a theme to this years event, yearning and longing. but I didn't find that out until later. 11:10:43 PM    comment [];trackback []; Majority rules ok Sen. Rick Santorum had an editorial in last Sundays Washington Post Outlook which struck me as odd: Majority Vote Should Trump Minority Rule. Majority rules? Well it is a tenant of Republican government; though nearly every other facet of our government is designed to keep that one from running amok. After this contentious pointedly worded title, he actually talks more prosaically about sentate conformation votes for appointed federal judges. Towards this end Sen Santorum believes in: the right(!) to an up or down vote for these lost souls. Apparently this is an enumerated right - somewhere. That he is witnessing an extreme and unprecedented arrogation of power, by democrats. The power of appointment of judges, belonging to the executive is a constitutional principle under attack. This is a pointless straw man, the democrats are not running black robed interlopers in through the back doors of America's courthouses. Somewhat tardily he acknowledges Advice and Consent (mentioned in the constitution) - as though he didn't remember it at first. Still its not a matter of politics, if they have nothing good to say, Senators ought say nothing. Whose ox is gored tells the clearest story. The primary difference seems to be whether appointments are obstructed by the majority or the minority party. By omission he seems to imply the former is so acceptable as to not need mention, the latter a destructive and audacious disrespect of the peoples voice.   Initially in its discussion; Federalist No. 10 refers not to minority or majority, but to faction itself:   AMONG the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction... If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote. It may clog the administration, it may convulse the society; but it will be unable to execute and mask its violence under the forms of the Constitution. When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens. To secure the public good and private rights against the danger of such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object to which our inquiries are directed. Federalist no. 10   Sen. Santorum also makes statements on the matter of litmus tests. The Republicans are learning the value of more subtle litmus tests. Candidates are at liberty to hold forth on the "culture of life" in vettings, during hearings, or conversely, not seek positions in the judiciary at all. Leaving the more rude and indelicate questions to the opposition. Sen. Santorums stake in this seems to evolve from his seat on the Rules Committee, Judiciary is the provence of the senior Senator from Penn. Arlen Spector. Or possibly his re-election campaign threading the needle between a primary challenge to even his right and a main campaign against a strong Democratic candidateto his left, leaving him with a number of narrowly targeted positions bobbing in his wake.  Despite what Sen Santurum may believe my senators are doing what I want and expect them to do - their jobs as representives. Sen Santurum leaves the greatest impression of simply disliking any continuing opposition. Again from Federalist No. 10      There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests... The second expedient is as impracticable as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves. The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. 10:00:11 AM    comment [];trackback [];

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. 2005 Paul Bushmiller. Last update: 5/04/05; 03:31:35.