A few days ago, Scott Tribe of progbloggers warned some of us that a certain group of bloggers who shall remain nameless were trying to start a blogburst by vilifying the Court Challenges program. Given that the Court Challenges program had already been pretty much killed dead by that group's favourite Vulcan prime minister, there seemed to some of us a touch of morbid obsession in that project.
So we thought of a more cheerful alternative: the progressive poetry blogburst tribute to the Court Challenges program. If you believe in democracy, clap hands and then write a pome in tribute to the Court Challenges program, for which I will provide a bit of history later. Well: I will provide a bit of the history of Stephen Harper's personal animus against the program.
But first, here are the rules:
1. Your pome does not have to be good, and it doesn't have to be long. Four lines minimum and heartfelt -- that is all we ask.Update to rules: Haikus are welcome. Even couplets are welcome. Forget the four-line rule.
2. Your pome must mention the Court Challenges program. It may also mention the destruction by fiat of the mandate of Status of Women Canada and/or the Canadian Wheat Board, or any other recent outrage you can think of.
3. You don't have to be tagged or to tag anyone else. Just, y'know, compose and publish.
I have a modest example here. I am not m'self much of a poet, which is why I don't call my pome a poem. It is a bit of doggerel, a parody of a great sonnet (which I shall copy on the flip), but we also serve who only stand and applaud the real poets, eh? And I am suspecting that out there in progblog land there are in fact a few real poets who could help us to sing enlightened programs like the CCP back to life.
Ahem. *cough*
Ode to the Court Challenges Program
When I have fears that Stephen Harper’s crew
May slip and slide through their minority,
May hide their worst intentions too
In hopes of a majority;When I behold the mandates cut and mocked
Of those who Challenge prejudice and fear,
Whose visions of women’s future really rocked
Or spoke to rural history we hold dear;Then I remember still to turn my gaze,
To listen for the voices fighting back,
To citizens who bravely spend their days
Defending rights and freedoms we still lack.The women, farmers, activists, progbloggers --
And with this pome I now tag all the poggers.
So why did Stephen Harper really hate the Court Challenges program so much?
Harper v. Canada, 18 May 2004.
On behalf of the National Citizens' Coalition (not quite just plain folks, eh?), Harper had challenged limits on the election-advertising spending of individuals (ie: the very wealthy, especially wealthy corporations), up to the Supreme Court. He lost. Who knows whether the court would have ruled against him anyway (probably -- our justices so far tend to be democrats)? But look at the list of interveners in that case. Guess how Democracy Watch and the National Anti-Poverty Organization were able to speak to that case before the Supreme Court?
Our Stephen does not forget a slight. Our Stephen is a man who intends to get even. Our Stephen nurses a grudge. The Court Challenges program crossed our Stephen, and it was from that moment on dead meat if our Stephen ever became prime minister.
Harper v. Canada. Has a real ring to it, doesn't it?
April Reign has already started the progressive poetry blogburst off for us, and I must let Scott know soon that we have conscripted him into another campaign, even as he celebrates today the one-hundredth post to the "five things" meme that he has shepherded so well through Women's History Month.
And my deepest apologies to the lovely man who wrote this:
When I have Fears that I may cease to be
When I have fears that I may cease to beBefore my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
-- John Keats, 1818
The simple truth is that the current lot of "Conservatives" simply cannot tolerate dissention and being questioned.
Whether that is clobbering programs that can be used to challenge legislation, or Rona Ambrose's feeble attempts at evading questions about the Hot Air Act she just introduced, it is clear that the CPoC is so convinced of their righteousness that they cannot and will not tolerate being challenged.
I posted a little "rap pome" on my blog.
Heckuva pome, A_Resident. Really well done.
And right on, Grog -- at least, that is clear to you and me. We have to work on making it loud and clear to our fellow citizens. Maybe they're starting to notice ... maybe ...
I hardly ever do this... but here goes:
ODE to The COURT CHALLENGES PROGRAM
Subtitled: The Killing of Justice
God Bless Canada, So Free
What is given and taken now Just be
No more worry about unjust law for we
Our Con government stands for me and thee
Nevermore shall a new government
Thrust upon its constituent
Something not right and true
No more Court Challenges for you
Hark! a new day dawns
Some higher power moves the pawns
Fark! how did it become
That the cost of our rights must equal our incomes?
(with apologies to david bowie)
stevie swampgas and the wingnuts from mars
stevie played the czar
damning folks that don't have weenies
to fund slashing scars
he waved his plump hand
and jammed it in far
thinks he's the special man
thinks this is stevie's land
stevie really sang
screwed up mind and cabbage leaf hairdo
like some prat with a plan
he could lick us by signing
he's gonna leave us to hang
comes on so bloated man
right wing and white boy bland
so where are the safeguards
while the cons crash the courthouse walls
just this dim bulb to guide us
so we bitch about his plans
to undermine our sweet land
stevie played for time
jiving us and flinging his doodoo
the kid has no class
an overgrown spaz
dear god he's an ass
this time he's gone too far
the corporate butt boy star
making law with his ego
stevie kisses the bush behind
like a cardboard messiah
when we de-elect the man
we'll have to remake our land
Aw, crap. 4 lines minimum I read just after writing a bloody haiku. :\
Haikus -- yay! Publish, kuri. And a hundred thousand apologies. I just hadn't thought of haikus, but I will do an update now to encourage them.
And locusta and lazlo, you guys rock!
Suitable for bathroom walls and rowdy barrooms:
"There once was a PM named Stephen,
Who des-pised a playing field, even;
He cut off the funds,
For court challengers, (bums);
In hope to see Feminists leave'in."
Ha! That's the spirit, Croghan.
And I see that kuri has her haiku up at her place.
Here's my pome.
The Court Challenges program we all grieve,
Was killed by a Prime Minister dubbed Steve.
But his pandering haste;
Disguised as cutting waste,
Let slip the sly agenda from his sleeve.
Wow, you poeple should send this to all the major newspapers. I'm certain it would spark a rallying cry never heard in Canada.
But to have a shimmer of Lazlo's talent...
how now, brown SOW, darkened spot in harper's brief history?
how flow the graces of indignity as we lay to rest the CCP?
rivers can be dammed but floodgates can't stand pressure
of all that is right and righteous. that river never stops flowing
the moon never stops the tides
you can't hold back the natural ebbs and flows
of blood and water and wombs.
you can't hold back the spit and piss of every man, woman
and child
put beneath the ground with the death of pono policy.
Mother Earth forever rising and bringing us Her attitude -
She doesn't want us here anymore.
Let's come to terms and endear the Mother of us all
not the politicians who's very plight to wear the dark cloak of the reaper serves to shake
shake us to where we should be - rising, rising, and opening
floodgates for our children's children's survival.
surviving, sacrificing, surfacing, covered with the dark, voluptious tendons of the Earth itself.
Bury us, you strengthen us as we take the
rich smells of terra firma and flare our nostrils like the bull.
how now , brown sow?
darkened by dirt, strengthened by it's flavour?
rise again, meet the moon, the cloaked politicians calling themselves ministers, and they preach...what?
they're not ordained, don't sustain anything of substance,
mere cult heads leading themselves to their own hell.
join ya there? nope, i'm rising, flowing with the grandmothers.
all for my daughter. all for her daughters.
feel, taste, make love to the Earth while we're under
our rise will be gentle agony. from that we grow.
conserva-ku
See See Pee? See ya!
Hahahaha, socialists,
suck it! Suck it hard!
Peter Mackay is that you?
“The only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping ... and showing his shortcomings.”
-- David Niven, Academy Awards, 1974
Scout, that is magnificent. I hope you'll put it up at Harper Valley too -- it deserves the attention.
And it's always fun with limericks, eh? Thanks, Robert.
Thanks for the challenge, skdadl! My pome is here
I voted for it, too.
why thanks skdadl. hmm, i'll think about posting it at harper valley, but if i don't it would be good to link ya and give you some publicity, it's a cool idea, good one!
done. liinking pogge too....wish i'd known about this site earlier :)