Urgency
Rachel Werner
Poetry; risograph print (stationary set)
$75
Artist Statement
“That we have the vote means nothing. That we use it in the right way means everything.”
—Lou Henry Hoover (1874-1944); First Lady of the United States from 1929 to 1933
As first ladies go, Lou Henry Hoover seems to have been regarded as an unnoteworthy figure by historians and American culture enthusiasts alike. I searched in vain for weeks for a full transcript of a speech by this enigmatic woman who was in the fact the first presidential spouse to give a live speech on the radio; be fluent in an Asian language (Mandarin); and invite an African American woman (Jessie DePriest, the wife an Illinois congressman) to a formal White House tea. Lou also appears to have been a champion for a number of feminist causes pre- and post- the four years her husband served as president. She co-founded and chaired the American Women's War Relief Fund and Hospital during WWI; headed a national Women's Conference on Law Enforcement in the Prohibition era (which also led to being the first “future” first lady to be featured on the cover of TIME Magazine; was vice president of the National Amateur Athletic Association board of directors (and only female board member); and played a major role in the expansion of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America into a national organization.
Lou Henry Hoover was an intelligent and independent woman who rode horses, shot guns and advocated for educational and professional opportunities for other women. It saddens me that so few texts now exist documenting the keen foresight she seems to have had in regard to the pitfalls of American democracy. Which is what inspired the erasure poem I crafted from this excerpt of a statement in her own words:
“It is a fault very evident in the panaceas offered by many would-be reformers of our social or political systems. When things are going wrong at some special point, instead of investigating and discovering usually that it is because of faulty human manipulation of the system, through ignorance of some or craftiness of others—or discovering what improvements in that section of the system can be accomplished to obviate the trouble—instead of possible practical adjustments or frank avowal of human mistakes, frailties, inconsistencies, impractical reformers, enthusiastic over some theory, try to scrap the entire system of which 90% is working well, and expect to evolve from the resulting chaos a Utopia by way of their own untried theory. They forget that the very same human nature will have to execute and live under the new theory as the old…”
The patriarchal perspectives which have defined the American historical narrative may not have thought her ideas and words worth archiving. But I do. Lou Henry Hoover’s keen insight still is applicable to pervasive social concerns this nation continues to grapple with…if only we will listen before it’s too late.
URGENCY
Is fault evident in panaceas by reformers?
Social or political systems are wrong…
At some point.
Instead of investigating
human manipulation of the system
—through ignorance or craftiness—
or discovering what can obviate trouble.
Instead of adjustments
or avowal of—
mistakes,
frailties,
inconsistencies.
Impractical.
Scrap the entire.
Expect to evolve
from the chaos
by untried theory.
Forget human nature
will execute
—and live—
the new as old.
About the Artist
Rachel Werner a teaching artist for The Loft Literary Center and founder of The Little Book Project WI, a bi-annual community arts and nonprofit printmaking collaboration. Her literary writing and craft essays have been published by Off Menu Press, Digging Through The Fat and Voyage YA Literary Journal. A selection of Rachel's recipes are also included in Wisconsin Cocktails (UW-Press, 2020)—and her poetry in the anthology Hope Is The Thing: Wisconsinites On Hope and Resilience in the Time of Covid-19 (The Wisconsin Historical Society, 2021).