As prez-elect Barack Obama continues to put his transition team in place, we the people have yet to hear his choice for one of the nation's most crucial duties.
Sure, Obama's team of bean counters will face monumental tasks in making our economy work again. His Secretary of Bombs and Bullets will face Dr. Strangelovian obstacles.
But the future of our nation may pivot upon one key Obama pick: Which poet (if any) will read a poem at his inauguration?
Even if you don't believe in that pen-is-mightier-than-the-sword thing, it's telling that just three days after winning the election, Obama was photographed in Chicago carrying a book of poems. And not some slight, 23-page volume of haiku. Rather, the Obamanator was toting a 516-page beastie -- "Collected Poems 1948-1984" by Derek Walcott, the 78-year-old, Nobel-winning West Indian writer.
Let's do the math here. Eight years of George W.'s presidency and we the people hear of a mere one encounter between the current prez and literature. That happened a few years ago when White House staff made a big to-do that Dubya recently had read Albert Camus' "The Stranger" -- a novel that pivots, ironically, upon the murder of an Arab by a French Algerian. Hmmmmmm.
Recent history reveals that Democratic presidents hold a decided poetic edge over Republicans. Robert Frost wrote and read a poem for John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1960. Maya Angelou did the same at Bill Clinton's inauguration in '92. Heck, Jimmy Carter published a book of his own poetry.
Early in the recent campaign, voters learned poetry wasn't alien to Obama when several of his poems, written during his college years in 1981, resurfaced.
Perhaps our nation is about to have our equivalent of Vaclav Havel, the longtime-playwright-president of the Czech Republic.
Republicans and conservatives can start making jokes about how Obama will defend American interests abroad by penning blistering protest poems against aggressors.
But I believe a U.S. president who is literate, intelligent and well-read in both literature and history will make better decisions and earn more respect from foreign governments.
In other news . . .
· A Florida license plate I saw last week (one of those special order ones) boldly proclaimed "WARGOD." This on a John Lennon plate -- yep, the guy who wrote "Give Peace a Chance."
· Last week came news that the family of Martin Luther King Jr. wants in on Obamamania -- that is, it wants a share of proceeds from the sale of T-shirts, posters and merchandise depicting King alongside our new president.
According to an Associated Press report, Isaac Newton Farris, who is King's nephew and head of the nonprofit King Center in Atlanta, said the estate is entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees: "Some of this is probably putting food on people's plates. We're not trying to stop anybody from legitimately supporting themselves but we cannot allow our brand to be abused."
Brand? Not "legacy" or "ideals" but brand? Evidently some of the King family have been to the marketing mountaintop, and there's a price tag up there.
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