Monthly Archives: December 2001

5 November 2001 This poem is not about the news, but my pad sits on today’s Tribune and the heel of my hand blots the newsprint and smudges friendly fire on the stanza, killing innocent iambs. This poem is not … Continue reading →

16 November 2001 western hemisphere institute for security cooperation (whisc) i mean what the hell is that? an adjective? did someone forget a connective or something? despite official claims that no other name could provide a sufficiently vague self-description while … Continue reading →

16 December 2001 N E W S C R O S T I C S ___NEWS __NEWS _NEWS NEWS ———————————————————————— Are we going to just sit here and let slimy, power-hungry thugs help themselves to more and more control over … Continue reading →

12 December 2001 Sending Signals Suicide bombers “express their frustration” Missiles “send signals” If enough of these messages are exchanged, no one will be alive to hear them [a tip of the hat to Clint Popetz]

1 December 2001 War vs. Sex no holds barred [Author’s note: scotch involved. Discretion advised.] sex, hands down sure, war has the really loud noises ††shrapnel crushing toddler skulls ††bombs vaporizing families planningweddings but sex has those subtle sounds ††soft, … Continue reading →

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia Columbus, Georgia May 22, 2001 My name is Rebecca Kanner, and I was born in 1957 in Cleveland, Ohio. I received a mechanical engineering degree from Ohio State University, and moved … Continue reading →

“Food in this country – we waste it a lot and we eat it a lot. We eat too much of it. It is a kind of weird dichotomy,” says Benita Vonne Ortiz, recycling coordinator of the housing division of … Continue reading →

Once upon a time, there was a little radio station in a bustling university town. The station’s small staff labored mightily to provide daily fare for a growing audience. The year was 1939, and the future of the station seemed … Continue reading →

You may have seen them outside the Urbana Post Office or the Free Library or the Champaign County courthouse during the lunch hour. Perhaps you’ve seen them at the junction of North Prospect Street and I-74 in Champaign. More recently, … Continue reading →

Forty miles to the west-southwest of Champaign-Urbana, a sinkhole is growing, slowly but surely. Its name is Decatur. This city’s economy, always reliant on the manual labor of its residents, has been slowly fading as industry emigrates. One of the … Continue reading →

Newspoems have graced the pages of each edition of the public i to date, but Newspoetry was not originally published on newsprint. As a matter of fact, under its web site’s masthead you can sometimes find a quote by Thomas … Continue reading →

Dear Public i: During a recent visit, I came across your publication. My first reaction was that your content is not particularly independent, but rather predictable in representing a particular point of view. But that is not why I write. … Continue reading →

Fighting-for-the-living-mourning-for-the-dead protesters march with puppets, banners, masks, and coffins outside the gates of the School of the Americas in Columbus, Georgia. On November 18, nineteen residents of Champaign-Urbana joined over 10,000 people from around the country who had traveled to … Continue reading →