In loving memory of Kurt Vonnegut, whose tribute in my own words was that he was a better writer than Mark Twain, in part because he stood on the shoulders of giants, but mainly because Twain saw himself as a psychotic Voltaire driven mad by people thinking he was joking, while Vonnegut has been described as hiding sweet truths in bitter coatings!, and thus gave one something to STRIVE FOR. News new to me, that I DIDNT hear on Faux News. Vonnegut went on to serve as honorary president of the American Humanist Association (AHA), having taken over the position from his late colleague Isaac Asimov, and serving until his own death in 2007. In a letter to AHA members, Vonnegut wrote: I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without expectations of rewards or punishments after I am dead. With his columns for In These Times, he began an attack on the George W. Bush administration and the Iraq War. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? he wrote. Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas. In These Times quoted him as saying The only difference between Hitler and Bush is that Hitler was elected. When asked how he was doing at the start of a 2003 interview, he replied: Im mad about being old and Im mad about being American. Apart from that, OK. (Sentiments I can agree with) He did not regard the 2004 election with much optimism; speaking of Bush and John Kerry, he said that no matter which one wins, we will have a Skull and Bones President at a time when entire vertebrate species, because of how we have poisoned the topsoil, the waters and the atmosphere, are becoming, hey presto, nothing but skulls and bones. At the annual Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library McFadden Memorial Lecture at Butler University in Indianapolis, on April 27, 2007, where Vonnegut was being honored posthumously, his son Mark delivered a speech that the author wrote for the event, and which was reported as the last thing he wrote. It ends with this: I thank you for your attention, and Im outta here. The satirical newspaper The Onion contained a tribute to Vonnegut soon after he died, with a reference to his work Slaughterhouse-Five stating that he shouldnt be referred to as dead without checking Dresden for his younger self first. When Vonnegut died, members of the Alplaus Volunteer Fire Department in New York lowered the American flag to half staff, hung the funeral shroud, and rang a fire bell in accordance with the traditional 5-5-5 alarm used to honor fallen brothers. Vonneguts name still appears on an old active fire-fighters roster, located next to a screen-print that he donated to the department. And this from Faux News. https://youtube/watch?v=1SiVasR2Gzo
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 17:59:01 +0000
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