To what purpose, April, do you return again? Beauty is not enough. You can no longer quiet me with the redness Of little leaves opening stickily. I know what I know. The sun is hot on my neck as I observe The spikes of crocus… –Edna St. Vincent Millay
In the U.S., Trump renders himself to his arraignment in New York. The twice-impeached former President is now indicted on 34 counts of felony. An extraordinary event in U.S. history, if not simply inevitable, given the number of open investigations and current allegations and cases against him. A while back we mused on the Art & Politics in America / Deconstructing the West Wing with Trump’s early choices as a lost leader and the reaction of the artists of the Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. This day, at once highly exceptional and totally banal, brings to full circle a certain though rather small sense of accountability.
Meanwhile, across the U.S., not even 100 days into 2023, we have seen over 140 mass shootings to date, according to various sources. Still, certain lawmakers are trying to pass a bill to commemorate the military style assault weapon used in many of these attacks as the national gun, unwitting of the farce they have become. Apple pie and AR-15s.
Then there is the Florida man DeSantis continuing his gubernatorial mission with a different kind of assault, armed with the state’s House Bill 1467, creating a veritable black hole of knowledge of history as a growing list of books are being pulled from library shelves for causing discomfort for the privileged.
The new barrage of false equivalencies of martyrdom or culture and history being censored is a real window into the current state of mis-education.
Today is April 7th. On this day was born the American jazz singer Billie Holiday (1915). Strange Fruit. Listen while you still can, as if it were okay to lynch a human being, but it’s illegal to learn about it in history.
