[Regarding "family history" of any "individual candidate"; A descendant of 
one of the many Elite & Prosperous Black Families in existence both prior to 
and after the Civil War, would be entitled to "Preferences" vis a vis a 
descendent of a poor "turn of the century" immigrant family that are still 
struggling to achieve middle class, but are having minorities "bump" them 
from consideration, every day of their life, including but not limited to 
Educational choices, Job Applications, Job Promotions, Bidding on Contracts, 
etc.

Further, Why would a RECENT Immigrant from Latin America, the Caribbean, or 
Africa, be entitled to "Privilege" or "Preference", (over American citizens 
of several generations), when no previous harm could have possibly been done 
to them???? 

This of course is in direct contravention of the stated assurances, of Hubert 
H. Humphrey, the Author of the Civil Rights Bill, Lyndon B. Johnson, the 
President that lobbied for it's passage, and even Martin Luther King Jr., all 
who were devoutly dedicated to Equal Opportunity, a Level Playing Field, and 
that there would be NO Discrimination, Reverse or otherwise!!

Either they all lied, or naively did not foresee the Law of Unintended 
Consequences, and/or Bureaucratic Creep (that permits Regulators to go to 
absurd extremes, or turn a law on it's head).

Ms. di Prima is the latest Italian American victim of that Reverse Discrimination,
that is so pervasive and perverse that being a Woman and a Feminist could not 
save her. (I warned you in a previous post that the choice might be very 
politically motivated, but I was stunned when the choice was announced.)

Perhaps this could be a wake up call to the Italian American Feminists, that 
are prone to bash Italian American Men. (Why have I never seen or heard of 
Jewish Feminists bashing Jewish Men?).

Before any "Limousine Liberals, or "Guilt Ridden White Breads", or " Knee 
Jerk Politically Correct" adherents start "calling me names", be forewarned 
that my Credentials for having served in the ranks in battling for rights for the 
under privileged very well may "trump" yours.  

Let's return to Ms. di Prima. Her credentials far exceeded the other two 
finalists, and  her accomplishments and achievements are inordinately 
impressive, to the point that were I either of the other two candidates I would 
be embarrassed to accept the honor!!!         

----------------------------------------------------------
JUST A QUICK COMPARISON:

DIANE DI PRIMA, 67, called the Poet Priestess, the first, and most important, 
woman writer of the Beat Movement, (although from a middle class family) 
graduated from the college preparatory program at Hunter College High School, 
an elite public school for girls in New York City, where she worked on the 
editorial board of the school paper, Scribimus. She then attended Swarthmore 
College for two years. She left college in 1953 to live in Manhattan to write 
full-time. While living in Greenwich Village, di Prima became part of the 
Bohemian intellectual culture: well-educated, white, middle-class individuals 
who rejected middle-class values, choosing a rebellious life-style.

Di Prima enjoyed a mutual admiration with the poet Ezra Pound, who influenced 
her, and while writing associated with such "Beat Poets" as Le Roi Jones (Imanu 
Amari Baraka), Allen Ginsberg, Audre Lord, and Jack Kerouac. Together with 
Jones, she edited The Floating Bear, an influential underground newsletter of 
Greenwich Village, from 1961-1969.[co-editor with Le Roi Jones (1961-1963) 
sole editor from 1963-1969]; contributing editor to Kulchur (1960-1961);  In 
1961 she helped to organize the New York Poets Theatre with Jones, Fred 
Herko, James Waring and Alan Marlowe, associate editor of Signal Magazine 
(1963-1965).In 1967 she traveled around the United States doing poetry readings. 
She headed for San Francisco in 1968 to work with the "Diggers" distributing free 
food. She is the founder of  Eidolon Editions (1972) and The Poets Institute 
(1976) and also helped to organize The Gold Circle with other artists in 1978. 

Di Prima has taught hermetic and esoteric traditions in poetry at the New 
College of California, in San Francisco; the NAROPA Institute (the Jack 
Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics) in Boulder, Colorado; and the 
Poetry-in-the-Schools Program of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Claiming to be most strongly influenced by poets John Keats, Ezra Pound, and 
Dylan Thomas, di Prima is widely published. Her first book of poetry was This 
Kind of Bird Flies Backwards (1958), followed in 1960 by Dinners and 
Nightmares, her first published book of short stories. The Calculus of 
Variation (1972), Dinners and Nightmares (1961, 1974), Loba, Parts I-VIII 
(1978), Memoirs of a Beatnik (1969, 1988), Pieces of a Song: Selected Poems 
(1990), Revolutionary Letters (1968, 1969, 1971), Selected Poems, 1956-76 
(1975), and Seminary Poems (1991). She has also contributed to and edited 
various anthologies of poetry, as well as translating medieval Latin into 
English in Seven Love Poems from the Middle Latin (1965, 1967). Her plays 
include: The Discontent of the Russian Prince, Discovery of America, Like, 
Murder Cake, and Whale Honey.Her current works in progress include Not Quite 
Buffalo Stew, a satire of California life; an autobiographical memoir, 
Recollections of My Life as a Woman; and a book on Shelley as magician/poet. 
Her work has been translated into over twenty languages, and four of her 
plays have been produced off-Broadway.

Three Universities have Diane di Prima Collections: Connecticut, Delaware, 
and Louisville.
---------------------------------------------
MORE on DIANE DI PRIMA: 

http://www.louisville.edu/library/uarc/diprima.html 
http://www.beatmuseum.org/diprima/dianediprima.html 
http://www.ksu.edu/english/janette/installations/MaryV/diPrima.htm  
http://www.levity.com/corduroy/diprima.htm 
http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/People/DianeDiPrima.html 

QUINCY TROUPE, 59, of La Jolla, tall, with an elegant drape of dreadlocks, 
was a basketball star at 14 and is the son of a baseball player.

Troup is best known for "Miles: The Autobiography" (Simon & Schuster, 1988) 
as well as a segment on the 1989 PBS documentary "The Power of the Word," 
hosted by Bill Moyers.

He is a two-time winner (1994 and 1995) of the World Poetry Bout in Taos, 
N.M., a stand-up poetry competition that anoints a yearly Heavyweight 
Champion of Poetry. 

Troupe wrote a high-voltage poem titled "A Response to All You: 'Angry White 
Men' " 

Troupe, was the editorial director of Code magazine, a style and culture 
quarterly aimed at African American males that work with Larry Flynt 
published in the mid-to-late-'90s. "There were no nekkid women," says Troupe.

Now finishing up a collection, "Transcircularities: New and Selected Poems" 
(Coffeehouse Press). He is teaching at UC San Diego, where he is professor of 
creative writing and teaches American and Caribbean literature.

Troupe, claims, and expects one to believe him, "I didn't want to politic for 
this job," ...I wanted them to make a choice on merit. About the poetry. Not 
about the politicking."

A music fanatic, that admits that he can't seem to sing in tune, but he 
claims to  have a great performing style. 

Troupe's very high profile as the state's poet laureate may begin to unbutton 
the formal notions of poetry. That will happen, he expects, through the lives 
he plans to touch and the new and different places, over the next two years, 
he plans to take poetry.  

Now, aren't we about to be blessed??!!
==============================================
THE POWER TO SPREAD THE WORDS

The state's first official poet laureate plans to bring verse to the people

By Lynell George
Los Angeles Times
Staff Writer
June 14, 2002