Jersey officials move to abolish Poet Laureate

For two years and 10 months New Jersey has been proud to harbor its own Poet Laureate, but before the conclusion of the year, this is likely to end.

In response to a poem written by the current poet laureate, Amiri Baraka, the state of New Jersey has been making moves to abolish the title.

Baraka wrote a poem in October, 2001 entitled "Somebody Blew Up America" in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

The poem made many controversial statements, including references to conspiracy theories and pronouncements bordering on anti-Semitism.

But a significant public response did not occur until Baraka gave a public reading of the poem last September.

The poem drew mixed responses, some scattered applause and booing, but the stanza that received the most attention in the press and in the reading included the lines:

"Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed / Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers / To stay at home that day / Why did Sharon stay away?"

These lines reflect a rumor widely circulated on the internet and other enclaves of conspiratorial thought that the Israeli government knew about the Sept. 11 attacks beforehand and made sure that none of their citizens would be in the area at the time.

The Anti-Defamation League and other groups were outraged at these statements, and when they were brought to the attention of governor James E. McGreevey, Baraka was immediately asked to resign.

He refused, and in a statement issued one week later entitled, "I Will Not 'Apologize,' I Will Not 'Resign!'" Baraka denied that his poem contained anti-Semitic feeling, pointing out that the poem "list[ed] some of the Jews across the world, oppressed, imprisoned, murdered by actual Anti-Semitic forces."

The poem does indeed ask "Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebnecht / Who murdered the Rosenbergs" and contains the lines "who put the Jews in ovens, / and who helped them do it, / Who said 'America First' / and Ok'd the yellow stars."

But Baraka maintains his belief that the Israeli government knew about the Sept. 11 attacks beforehand, and that our president as well as most major countries also knew.

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"I do believe, as I stated about England, Germany, France and Russia, that the Israeli government, certainly its security force, SHABAK, knew about the attack in advance," he said on his website, amiribaraka.com.

New Jersey officials still wanted to oust Baraka from the position, but because not even the state governor can fire the poet laureate, a bill was introduced into the state senate to abolish the position altogether.

By the end of December the state Senate voted 21-0 to abolish the title, with 19 abstentions. The bill still needs to be approved by the state Assembly, where it has currently been sent to a committee.

Why did the committee that picked the poet laureate choose Amiri Baraka, who is well known for his controversial beliefs and has been known in turn as a beat poet, a black panther, a revolutionary, a Marxist and a conspiracy theorist?

"He has a history of great social concern and of being indiscrete, so no one should be surprised that he would write a socially concerned and indiscrete poem," said CK Williams, a Princeton professor and poet.

But as Baraka has been a major figure in American poetry since the 1950s, and as a New Jersey native, his applicability to the post may have been impossible to overlook.

Furthermore, some believe that the poet simply laureate post isn't very important to begin with.

Gerald Stern, who held the position for two years before Amiri Baraka, felt that the post was no more than an honorary title.

"The State of New Jersey did not give me money for programs. They did not give me any support," Stern said.

The position of poet laureate may have been nothing more than a superficial honor, but it is an honor that in a few months might no longer exist in New Jersey.