Poets know how to say things best–and the best poets know how to pack a punch with their words, which are often quoted. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said: “I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of
When speaking, politicians don’t always use the best words. They tend toward uttering their “talking points” and “staying on message.” They are often caught off guard when someone asks them an unexpected question that they aren’t prepared to answer. Rick Santorum found himself in an awkward position recently. Santorum was speaking at an “ECON-101” Town Hall meeting-style event Thursday sponsored by the Center for Civic Engagement at New England College in New Hampshire when he was tripped up by a student who asked him if he knew that his campaign slogan “Fighting to make America America again,” was borrowed from the “pro-union poem by the gay poet Langston Hughes.”
Santorum responded: “No I had nothing to do with that. I didn’t know that. And the folks who worked on that slogan for me didn’t inform me that it came from that, if it in fact came from that.”
Shortly thereafter, when asked what the campaign slogan meant to him, Santorum replied that he wasn’t sure if that WAS his campaign slogan—but that he thought it was on a web site.
According to The Union Leader, the slogan was printed on campaign literature that had been handed out before Santorum’s speech.
The poem the student was referring to was Langston Hughes’ Let America Be America Again. Here are two stanzas from the middle of the poem:
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak. I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one's own greed!
The poem ends like this:
O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-- America will be! Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-- All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!
You can read the entire poem here at the website of The Academy of American Poets.
I’d consider that a fine poem that truly packs a punch.
Langston Hughes (1902-1967), whose work was important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance, was a great American poet. He is also the author of a wonderful collection of poems for children titled The Dream Keeper.
Poor Rick Santorum! He doesn’t even know the meaning of his own campaign slogan! Rick even thinks it MAY NOT BE his campaign slogan. Doesn’t that make you wonder what else he’s clueless about? This bodes well for a potential presidential run, don’t you think?
Sources
VIDEO: Rick Santorum Says He Has ‘Nothing To Do’ With His Own Campaign Slogan (Think Progress)
Rick Santorum disowns campaign slogan when told a gay liberal poet came up with it (Salon)
Santorum in NH: People want a President who believes in them (Union Leader)