09-13-2015, 09:43 AM
Hey Ray-
Do you think writing a poem about it is taking advantage of it? no
Knowing that people -- well, at least those over 25 -- will be more likely to read it? Depends upon the content. Still no. The insight of a competent poet is sometimes the best insight.
Considering the evil of the act has been outstripped by the opportunists, I've come to
think -- as terrible as it might sound -- that it is best to let it pass into history.
I can certainly understand that opinion Ray. The simple saying, "never forget" is valuable, I believe. It's what some folks add to that saying that makes it distasteful.
I don't "regret" observing that as more time passes, the more the actual events slide into history. And history is chock full of horrific events, and the power, terror, and immediacy of those events can not be truly authentic in their re-construction (which is why I think history tends to repeat itself. We humans begin to romanticize these events: American civil war re-enactments, as an example.
Once all of those who were directly affected are no longer around (ie dead) the precise, wrenching effect of those events becomes murky. Those voices, then, only exist in history, or I should say, as history.
The events becomes points of reference, excuses, as you say, in the evolution of the next atrocity... Human beings, being human, seem to be trapped in a never ending cycle of self destructive behavior. It's a wonder that we're still around...
Do you think writing a poem about it is taking advantage of it? no
Knowing that people -- well, at least those over 25 -- will be more likely to read it? Depends upon the content. Still no. The insight of a competent poet is sometimes the best insight.
Considering the evil of the act has been outstripped by the opportunists, I've come to
think -- as terrible as it might sound -- that it is best to let it pass into history.
I can certainly understand that opinion Ray. The simple saying, "never forget" is valuable, I believe. It's what some folks add to that saying that makes it distasteful.
I don't "regret" observing that as more time passes, the more the actual events slide into history. And history is chock full of horrific events, and the power, terror, and immediacy of those events can not be truly authentic in their re-construction (which is why I think history tends to repeat itself. We humans begin to romanticize these events: American civil war re-enactments, as an example.
Once all of those who were directly affected are no longer around (ie dead) the precise, wrenching effect of those events becomes murky. Those voices, then, only exist in history, or I should say, as history.
The events becomes points of reference, excuses, as you say, in the evolution of the next atrocity... Human beings, being human, seem to be trapped in a never ending cycle of self destructive behavior. It's a wonder that we're still around...