NVN Saturday: SPEAKING, UNSPEAKING
by Lavinia Kumar
A “McCarthyite Backlash” Against Pro-Palestine Speech: From university disciplinary hearings to death threats, supporters of Palestinian rights are facing a wave of reprisals. —Jewish Currents, October 20, 2023. Rick Friedman / Alamy Stock Photo: Students rally for Palestine at Harvard University on October 14th, 2023.
*
First, Fourteenth, speech freedom laws—a speaker’s Right to let words fly like leaves from trees, and now new Edited 19th century pro- anti- Protestant, Catholic is back Excoriating religions, their people, morphed to Swarms of crowds, anti- pro- Palestine, Israel, a revived Partisan diatribe, a pugnacious polemic Energized by freedom of speech, guns, flags, politicians Elected to lance wise trees, plant dissent, grow weeds of disquiet, Champion division and decomposition—while vultures Hover over words, freedoms, human rights, and Instantly Wall Street funders plunge down to scarf Numerous dollars, from universities, they gave, yes, Donated, but today want to scavenge back, yes Adamantly against “free” speech they don’t approve… Names spattered, posted, across media, a strings-attached Generosity, employment conditional on proscribed screed Engineered, implanted, into young minds, those abundant in Rallies on world streets, for freedom. For truly free speech.
*
Lavinia Kumar’s recent poems appear (or will soon) in Poets Choice, Kelsey Review, Schuylkill Valley Journal, MacQueen’s Quinterly, New Jersey Journal of Poetry, Tiny Seed.