MONDAY, JULY 13, 2026
...Graham heaped praise on Joe Biden: "When a person dies, what has gone is not nothing..."
That's the way we've always remembered the lines (in translation) from Yevtushenko—lines we came upon a very long time ago. That isn't the way the lines truly read, but we've always remembered them that way.
We came upon the poem in question in Deschooling Society, "a 1971 book written by Austrian priest Ivan Illich that critiques the role and practice of education in the modern world." (So says the overview offered by the leading authority.)
Late in the book, Illich included the entire poem (in translation). We remember nothing about the book, but we've never forgotten, or given up on, the thrust of the memorable poem.
"No people are uninteresting," the poem says as it starts. The poem moves us, very deeply. To this day, we don't know why.
Also, Senator Graham suddenly died this weekend. One time, in 2015, that very same person had this to say about the sitting vice president:
GRAHAM (undated, 2015): The bottom line is, if you can't admire Joe Biden as a person, then it's probably—you've got a problem!
You need to do some self-evaluation. Because, what's not to like?
The statement was made during an interview with HuffPost, back when Graham was running for president. The interview was videotaped. Here's the text of the longer chunk regarding Vice President Biden:
GRAHAM (continuing directly): Here's what I can tell you—
Life can change just like that [snaps his fingers]. Don't take it for granted. Don't take relationships for granted.
I called him after Beau died and he basically said, "Well, Beau was my soul." We talked for a long time.
He came to my [military retirement?] ceremony and said some of the most incredibly heartfelt things that anybody could ever say to me. And, um [pauses]— He's the nicest person I think I've ever met in politics.
INTERVIEWER: Is that right?
GRAHAM: He is as good a man as God ever created, and we don't agree on much, but I think he's been dealt a really gut blow. I think he focuses on what he's got to do, not on what he lost.
There's a bit more to the videotape as it was originally presented. As you can see by clicking here, HuffPost placed it on YouTube under this heading:
Lindsey Graham Chokes Up Talking About Joe Biden
"Life can change just like that," Senator Graham said that day. "Don't take it for granted."
He also said that Vice President Biden was "as good a man as God ever created."
A lot has changed since the day when that interview took place. Joining Jeffrey Rosen, we aren't sure that our flailing nation will be able to find a way out of our current state.
"No people are uninteresting," Yevtushenko wrote. "Their lives are like the chronicle of planets..."
We can't say that we really think that Graham's statement was interesting. The same is true of the predictably ugly statement Katie Miller made, just yesterday, about that same Joe Biden.
As people, we live in a world of people. We've shown you what Graham once said. This week, we'll briefly look at some of the people now crowding our failing public discourse.
A type of democratization has occurred in the past (let's say) forty years. As a result, the discourse is open to many people who possibly shouldn't be there.
Tomorrow: "Communist bastards," he said
"...Graham heaped praise on Joe Biden: "When a person dies, what has gone is not nothing..."
ReplyDeleteGraham may have praised Biden, but he didn't say the words that follow Somerby's colon (:) in his subhead, indicating that what follows is from Graham.
As Somerby notes, the quote is from Yevtushenko, a poet, not Graham. Why write a subhead that implies Graham quoted the poet and said those words?
Somerby misremembers the quote, as he admits. But why wouldn't he take a moment to look up the actual lines:
"But what has gone is also not nothing:by the rule of the game, something has gone.Not people die, but worlds die in them."
Without the following line about worlds dying in them, the first line is fatuous and means nothing, because everything is "not nothing" on this planet. It is what things ARE that matters, not the fact of their not-nothingness.
This carelessness by Somerby is insulting to his readers and to the poet Yevtushenko, who Somerby refers to often enough to get it right and use the poets actual words. Somerby cannot claim to care about this poet and then mangle his poems like this. But I find myself wondering whether Somerby genuinely cares about anything he professes to care about. Shitting on other people's work with careless disregard of their actual work is a put-down, perhaps a way for Somerby to feel better about himself by neglecting what others laud as important. Like throwing a cashmere sweater in a heap on the floor and walking on it, or buying a fancy car and then never washing it.
Bob Somerby is an arthropod.
DeleteI am glad the flip flopping POS fascist enabling war mongering fuck face Graham is dead. May he rot in hell.
DeleteIn our hyper-partisan atmosphere, we forget that Senators work side by side for years and do become friends as people beyond politics. That doesn't mean Graham did the right things as Senator himself.
ReplyDeleteThere have been articles lately in the NYTimes about the abandonment of right wingers by their left wing family members, over politics. But I do not believe that people can or should remain friends with people who are bad people. One can be political like Graham but they should draw the line at the kinds of things Trump has done that are immoral, evil, cost lives and destroy both truth and our heritage. I don't care whether Graham admired Biden as a person -- Biden is a good person and should be admired. I cannot say the same about Graham or most other Republicans these days. And that is on them.
Somerby's "can't we all get along" Kumbaya urgings become tiresome because Somerby doesn't deal with the implications of these people's acts, the harm they do to others. Yes, Somerby wants us to pity Trump, but this is like urging us to pity Charles Manson or Stalin or any of the other narcissistic evil-doers. I won't do it and I can and will still consider myself a good person because I refuse to turn the other cheek to someone like Trump and his cronies.
No lives are uninteresting Somerby quotes, and that means we must consider all of the lives Trump touches to do damage as important as Lindsay Graham's.
I am glad the flip flopping POS fascist enabling war mongering fuck face Graham is dead. May he rot in hell.
DeleteHitler and Stalin were nice guys. For a year or so, they worked together.
ReplyDeleteLindsey Graham is a Zionist warmonger whose influence cost many lives. On the other hand he also saved millions by helping to install Supreme Court justices who gave us Dobbs. RIP Lindsey.
ReplyDeleteHe saved fetuses because most of them are Zionists.
Delete“In 1748, Benjamin Franklin published a textbook called The American Instructor, which included explicit instructions and herbal recipes for early-term abortions. This catch-all manual detailed mixtures featuring abortifacients of the era like pennyroyal to "suppress the courses" and end pregnancies early.”
DeleteFounding father says what??
Founding fathers can be white glove Nazis too.
DeleteI found Graham to be uninteresting, just another toady to Trump who betrayed any principle he might have once held.
ReplyDeleteI am glad the flip flopping POS fascist enabling war mongering fuck face Graham is dead. May he rot in hell.
Delete