Meet Ivan Franko

Source: http://www.franko.lviv.ua/ifranko/franko_eng.html

The Ukraine has been in the news lately, but not necessarily for the best of reasons. It might be time to take a look behind the wall of political barbarity; to cross the politically pointed barbed wire of local and international perceptions and interpretations and focus on aspects of Ukrainian culture that we are unfamiliar with. In an earlier post, I wrote about the famous Ukrainian poet Taras Schevchenko. Now it is time to become acquainted with Ivan Franko (1856-1916). Below is his poem
"Semper Tiro." Enjoy!



                             SEMPER TIRO

Man's life is brief, but what art infinite
It takes to live it as creative task!
At first it seems as though 'twere but to flit
In magic dreams, in fantasies to bask.
But soon it grows to bounds unknown before,
Demands thy hopes, begins thy soul to ask,
Takes all thy powers, and still cries out for more.

Then, with the fruitage of thy mind and heart,
Thou standest as before some deity.
To honor her thou dost thy blood impart,
Thy nervous force, thy brain's capacity,
As to a goddess that must be adored,
And feelest like a slave, no longer free,
While in thy heart thou say'st: "I will be lord!"

Believe it not! Deceptive is the Muse.
The goddess will suck out thine "I" to use
It as a vessel for her sportive play;
She'll drain thy soul and then cast it away.
Heed not the strains thou hearest from her lyre:
"As master, thou upon men's hearts shalt play,
And millions move with thy poetic fire."

Believe it not! If thou indeed must sing,
If poesy within thee is supreme,
Serve thou the goddess without wavering,
But to rule over her thou must not dream.
Let thy song at the feast of life ring free
And unconstrained. Know thou but this one thing:
The poet always must a learner be. 

To learn more about Ivan Franko visit this website:  http://www.franko.lviv.ua/ifranko/life_of_ivan_franko.htm

A New Jerzy Pontification

In today's The New York Times I read an article titled "A Plea to Deny Gunmen Their Quest for Infamy." It touched on the efforts by families of mass shootings (New Town, Columbine, Arapahoe, etc.) to prevent the mention of the killers' identities to deny them the "recognition" they sought. Their efforts are timely-we need to deny the spread of the killers' cyberfame and notoriety via the media. It is inevitable that one killer will look on the shooting spree of another and extract "inspiration" from the rampage. You can never reason with killers; all we can do, since they take the cowardly way out by committing suicide, is deny them more media attention.

I am reminded of a memorable passage from a short story written by Jerzy Kosinski (from his book Steps). He wrote, "Almost all of us on the jury were able to discuss and imagine how he had committed the crime and what had impelled him to it. To clarify certain aspects of his case, some of the jurors acted out the role of the accused in an attempt to make the rest of us understand his motives. After the trial, however, I realized that there was very little speculation in the jury room about the victim of the murder. Many of us could easily visualize ourselves in the act of killing, but few of us could project ourselves into the act of being killed in any manner. We did our best to understand the murder: the murderer was a part of our lives; not so the victim."

Kosinksi wrote those hauntingly prescient words in 1968. Why, then, has it taken us so long to "get it?" Claire Davis is in our collective short-term memory for the moment, but for how much longer? We need to ensure that the memories of the victims, who they were, what they did, etc. are not buried beneath the avalanche of attention that is directed toward the perpetrator of a school shooting, etc.

Once Upon A Time Alan Dershowitz Wrote a Book......

Alan Dershowitz has a new book out titled Taking the Stand: My Life in the Law. I perused it not to find any tidbit of useful information or memorable anecdotes. Instead, I looked for mention of Dershowitz's academic nemesis, Norman Finkelstein. Anyone familiar with Dershowitz's legal work, teaching at Harvard University, or his public performances will remember the classic exchange between Dershowitz and Finkelstein on Democracy Now! in which Finkelstein meticulously pointed out factual inaccuracies in Dershowitz's 2003 book "The Case for Israel."

To capture the essence of the dispute and understand the dislike these men  have for each other, check out the excellent DVD American Radical: Trials of Norman Finkelstein. It is memorable, if nothing else because Dershowitz, well known for his oratorical skills, has a few "Well, I., uh......." moments.

However, in the end, Dershowitz "won." He contacted DePaul University, Finkelstein's place of employment, and made a strong case to deny him tenure if not outright fire him. Sadly, the university listened.

It saddens me that something like this happens (much too frequently) in the world of academia. Finkelstein still makes a living, but it is a shame that more people are denied access to his intellect and powers of perception.

All this went through my mind as I flipped through the pages of Dershowitz's new book. I immediately went to the index to see if there was any mention of Norman Finkelstein. Sure enough, there was. The index read "Norman Finkelstein...............................p. 18."  I immediately turned to page 18 to look for the mention of Finkelstein. I was curious to see what Dershowitz had to say. I read the whole page and found no mention of Finkelstein. Some things never change! It makes you wonder about the existence of the other items listed in the index, doesn't it?