*Barbarians at the Gates* They are gone now, former *Sun* editor Doug Ray, or going--editorial page editor Nathan Crabbe. Their mentor Ron Cunningham also recognizes that journalism’s horse & buggy days are over. So I no longer will run for public office, or contribute guest columns and letters to the editor. They leave behind these words: Ray: “When telling the news is not enough…..Journalism gets us nowhere if we don’t engage honestly and directly with the communities we serve.” Crabbe: “We sometimes can’t seem to get our act together as a community, squabbling over minor issues rather than focusing on larger goals. People too often seem more interested in protecting their own turf rather than collaborating on common interests.” “It breaks my heart to see *The Sun* and other newspapers opt out of the ‘argument of daily life;’ by reducing or eliminating editorial and op-ed pages. The only other ‘public forum’ out there is a social media jungle that is as deceptive as it is treacherous,” Ron Cunningham. *Three Hollow Men* Mistah Ray, he gone. Going now. Nathan Crabbe. They are two hollow men They are two stuffed men leaning together headpiece filled with straw. Alas! their dried voices, when they whispered together were quiet and meaningless as wind in dry grass or rats' feet over broken glass in our sick city. Shape without form, shade without color, paralyzed force, gesture without motion; They double crossed with senseless “I’s, in life’s wordy Kingdom, to be remembered-if at all-not as lost tortured souls, but only as two hollow men two stuffed men. They, we dare not meet in dreams in life’s dark kingdom nor let them appear here; their “I”s are dim lit on an old news column. Theirs is a lie swinging between voices in the wind's singing more distant now less solemn than a fading star. Let me be no nearer to their dark kingdom; let me also wear such deliberate disguises-- rat's coat, black skin, cross-eyed, In a field behaving as the wind behaves-- No nearer- No last final meeting In some twilight kingdom. Theirs is the dead land; Theirs is prickly land. Here their false images are praised, here they receive the supplication of a cunning man, under the twinkle of a fading star. Is it like this in life’s other kingdom, waking alone at the hour when we are trembling with meaningless tips which always miss, prayers formed to broken gods? Their “I’s are not here; There are no “I”s here in this valley of dying stars, in this hollow city with broken jaws, in their lost kingdom. In this last of meeting places, they grope together and avoid speech gathered on an edge of this stagnant swamp. Sightless, unless the “I’s reappear as the perpetual stars multifoliate rose in life’s twilight kingdom-- the hope only of empty men. *Here we go round Sun’s prickly pair,* * Prickly pair, prickly pair. Here we go round the prickly pair, at five o'clock in the morning.* Between the idea And the reality Between the motion And the act Falls the Shadow *For Theirs is the false life.* Between the conception And the creation Between the emotion And the response Falls the Shadow *Life is very long* Between the desire And the spasm Between the potency And the existence Between the essence And the descent Falls the Shadow *For Theirs is the false life.* For Theirs is the Lie, For Truth is wha? *Theirs is the way the world ends* * Theirs is the way the world ends Theirs is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper.* *Fare thee well. (600 words).* *Gabe Kaimowitz, Esq., a Gainesville resident.* *The third Hollow Man is Sun’s retired editorial page editor Ron Cunningham, referred to in the modified poem as “cunning man.” This poem credits the late T. S. Eliot with the original version of the Hollow Men, as updated and applied through the eyes of H. G. Kaimowitz* ######################################################################## Access the RAEMI-EAGLE-GLENN Home Page and Archives: http://listserv.alachuacounty.us/scripts/wa.exe?A0=RAEMI-EAGLE-GLENN Unsubscribe from the RAEMI-EAGLE-GLENN List: http://listserv.alachuacounty.us/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=RAEMI-EAGLE-GLENN ########################################################################