Listen & Be Heard Network Arts News

The question of what belongs of Finland in the work of Finnish-American authors and poets has been raised.

Is the subject matter which Finnish-American authors and poets write about a nostalgia describing a “home” land only sporadically if ever actually visited?

In “The Celebration of Smell,” which appears in New World Finn , the October 2008 release date, I write about the effects of “lutefisk” on my memory of Christmas in my childhood. A piece of Memoir? Yes. And this piece of Memoir is nostalgic.

But for Finnish-American authors and poets another source of inspiration exists: that of Social Justice born out of the experience of our slow to anger, recalcitrant people. Taciturn? Ja! I would rather write than talk face-to-face. And I stand on this Ground-of- Being with all the stubbornness of a Yule-tide goat.

The first piece of my writing which was to be published appeared over fifty-five years ago in the Oakland Tribune, a newspaper. They published it when I was twelve years old. This piece was an adventure story about the relationship between a father and a son. The story reflected my “very quiet” relationship with my own father in which very little was said but much was expected from me by the example which he posed.

The next piece of note was published on the front page of The Berkeley Barb, an alternative newspaper published in the era of alternatives. This front page piece was a short story, a piece of fiction. When was the time when you saw the front page of a newspaper, alternative or main stream, being dedicated to a piece of fiction…at least on purpose and not by accident?

This short story, “Meat for America,” railed against the war in Vietnam in the guise of following the daily adventures of a meat salesman who butchered his own source of goods: usually people whom he met during the day.

This short story preceded “Sweeny Todd” as well as alternative movies which utilized a similar theme. It was the outrage against the war in Vietnam and the lies told with which to justify the presence of troops there which inspired this short story/fable, as the short story, “Adaptation and Adoption,” which appeared in New World Finn many years ago, was inspired by the war in Iraq.

But from where does this revulsion for war stem? With me the revulsion stems from the history of Finland. The Finns have been involved in fourteen wars in the last two hundred and fifty years. The over-whelming majority of these wars have been fought on Finnish land in to which Finnish bodies could be buried.

The question in my short stories about war remains: “How many millions of people would you soldiers have to kill in cold-blood, a few feet in front of you before you would become so sick to your stomach, that you would “give up” war forever?

No believer in “Thou art That,” expressed as Jehovah, Jesus, Allah, the quest for Nirvana or the masks of God, believes that war is justified. Only infidels who instead place their belief in interpreters of these traditions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism, respectively, kill, justifying their murder behind the guise of preserving the Romantic notion of the State.

The pain of existence is enough for dumb Finns and dumber Finnish extracts to learn from.

Those who take life in war do not learn; they just experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and are told to “Suck it Up!”

Woe to the Victor. Woe to the Vanquished. As is said at the end of Sillanpaa’s “Meek Heritage.”

Agape, kiitos, shalom, Xie Xie, salaam ja namaste,

Don as “Tauno”