On April 27, 1958, Richard and Pat Nixon embarked on a goodwill tour of South America. In Montevideo, Uruguay, Nixon made an impromptu visit to a college campus, where he fielded questions from students on U.S. foreign policy. The trip was uneventful until the Nixon party reached Lima, Peru, where he was met with student demonstrations. Nixon went to the campus, got out of his car to confront the students, and stayed until forced back into the car by a volley of thrown objects. At his hotel, Nixon faced another mob, and one demonstrator spat on him.[90] In Caracas, Venezuela, Nixon and his wife were spat on by anti-American demonstrators and their limousine was attacked by a pipe-wielding mob.[91] — Richard Nixon, Wikipedia; Ambrose, Stephen E. (1987). Nixon: The Education of a Politician 1913–1962. New York: Simon & Schuster.
A Volley of Thrown Objects
Let us begin with a grizzly bear launched from the North Cascades,Add a lion, a cheetah, a white rhino horn,
Follow up with a pack of howling wolves, take the ones back to Yellowstone,
Toss mountain lions, jaguar and ocelots over borders,
Huck the baying beagles who have put paws on grass and known freedom,
Move on to Tennessee walking horses flailing their blistered hooves,
Hurl more dogs, ill-used breeding bitches, heavy with matted fur,
Animal abusers, trophy hunters, discarded fetuses splatter nicely,
Chuck cages, knives and guns, together make a satisfying clash,
Add a volley of test tubes, throw science, for shards.
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Won't it take a battering of lives to get their attention?
A volley of suffering, an immeasurable recipe for disaster.
Because, let's face it, it's difficult to throw a dying planet,
Unless it's reclassified, Earth might be too big,
Earth with its 7 billion people and its 8 million species,
At least every year some of them go extinct,
It's 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms, 5.9 sextillion tons,
Shoot it from a super soaker, it's mostly water.
A dwarf planet could be shot out of a cannon,
Pluto's far out, but known; Planet X is yet to be found.
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Now, you can't throw civil rights, women's rights, global health,
They barely exist.
Equality, justice, liberty too intangible,
Stoicism, humanism, utopianism: Philosophy won't make much of an impact.
Libertarians, Greens, Socialists: Political parties, even with tea, aren't any fun.
Racism, sexism, fascism: It's tough to throw anything sticky.
You could throw an anarchist, but can't say where they'll land.
You could throw an authoritarian, if they'll let you.
You could throw Emma Lazarus, if you remember her sonnet.
You could throw tantrums, hysterics, hissy fits — they'll say you did anyway.
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In truth, one imagines tomatoes, South American mangoes,
Dragon fruit, guava, Peruvian limes: Why waste precious food on a tyrant?
Lima beans are nutritious, but light,
Honestly, bottles, cans, pipe-wielding crowds,
See people prefer you throw lies.
If you throw trash, people complain.
Don't throw your protest sign. You'll need it again.
You could throw Planned Parenthood, the ACLU,
Attorneys wield books, judges pack punches, though law has an uncertain arc,
Surely, throw books, banned or not, public schools, 119, 487 libraries.
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You could throw a Somalian child, worse has been done,
Throw some 20 million refugees or leave them alone,
Throw Frederick Douglass, he wouldn't mind.
Throw world leaders, NGOs, warlords: What you need is a giant, a new colossus.
John Henry could throw rails, engines and steel.
Paul Bunyan could throw axe handles and Babe the Blue Ox.
Coyote could throw tricks; Raven drop sun, moon and stars,
Atlas could throw the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial, the head weighs 46 tons,
It's made of shrimp pink granite and the sky is falling anyway.
You could throw shrimp, but only until 2048 when the oceans go dead.
--
You could throw a militia, but that would be hard, and just what they want.
Throw an executive order, throw Congress, throw a rally, throw marchers, throw throngs,
Why not throw lightening? Throw like a god — Thor, Indra or Zeus.
Throw Winifred Otto Schumann, his resonance rising.
The worse things get, the more global lightening,
Eventually, you think, somebody will notice.
You could throw sparks or sit in the street,
Throw your mind. Throw your words.
Throw your vote. Throw democracy.
Throw it all up in the air — and then run.
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