other references” and used them as herrnown.rnDuring my interview with Cawood,rnhe said, “If Tennille wants to take her on,rnI promise him, he won’t know what hitrnhim.” I asked him to explain. “She’s arnvery articulate—she will respond veryrnaccurately and deliberately to him. Ifrnyou’ve heard her speak, you know herrncommand of the English language andrnher command of logic. She speaks sevenrnlanguages—lectures in seven languages.rnShe has no formal education. She hasrnmemorized Shakespeare—she can reciternevery line of Shakespeare.”rnCawood went on to praise Angelournand to say that she had “created a masterpiecernof great dimension.” He calledrnthe idea that Angelou could have beenrninspired by Tennille’s poem “mentalrnmasturbation” and “a frivolous exercise.”rnBut when pressed, Cawood admittedrnthat he didn’t even know whether Angelournhad seen Tennille’s poem prior tornthe inauguration. As Cawood concludedrnhis missive to Tennille: “I pray yourrntenancy [sic] and correspondence in attemptingrnto contact her [Angelou] wasrnin a grateful spirit and not as I and othersrnhave interpreted it.”rnTennille wrote back to Cawood andrnlisted seven examples of the similarities.rn”Hie theme of each poem is to look tornthese aspects of nature and draw strengthrnfrom them, literally and/or metaphorically,”rnsaid Tennille. “Another theme isrnreturn to the natural elements as a stimulusrnto self-discovery,” Tennille explained.rnBoth poems, he said, personifiedrnthe rock and river. Tennille also saidrnhis poem personifies ropes hanging fromrntrees; Angelou’s personifies the tree.rnTennille’s other personification isrn”hands”; Angelou’s poem says, “Women,rnchildren, men,/Take it [the dream] intornthe palm of your hands.” Both end withrnaffirmation. “At the end of each there isrnthe theme of turning to, or trusting in,rneach other,” said Tennille.rnTennille asked Cawood about thernOutward Bound connection: “Indeed, itrnnow appears that Professor Angelournwrote the poem in the presence ofrnRobert Brown, a founding Trustee of thernNorth Carolina Outward Bound School.rnIf he has had a copy of [my] poem onrndisplay (which would not be surprising),rnis it not possible that she had seen it, perhapsrnmany times?” Still stubbornly refusingrnto acknowledge the similarities ofrnthe works, Cawood fired anotherrnbrusque letter off to Tennille, saying “Irnfirmly believe there is NO similarity betweenrn’Outward Bound’ and ‘On thernPulse of Morning.'” He concluded hisrnletter by writing, “As Mr. Brown has suggestedrnto you, I hope this matter is put tornrest.”rnThe New York Post and ManchesterrnGuardian (Great Britain) published newsrnstories about the December Chroniclesrnarticle. Both papers attempted to talkrnto Angelou about the matter, but shernrefused to comment. Only after thernGuardian story had gone to press didrnAngelou talk with its reporter, and whenrnasked about the Tennille poem, she beganrnsinging black spirituals to him overrnthe telephone.rnIn preparation for this update, I againrncontacted Angelou to get her feedbackrnon the matter. Her secretary, who worksrnout of an office in Angelou’s largernWinston-Salem home, agreed to ask Angelournabout the Tennille poem. After Irnwas placed on hold for over five minutes,rnthe secretary returned to the telephonernand informed me, “Dr. Angelournhas decided not to grant you an interview.”rnI followed up with a written request tornAngelou for information:rnI was informed this morning byrnMs. Langston, of your office, thatrnafter she conferred with you aboutrnthe Tennille poem, your positionrnwas that you had not seen it priorrnto today. This seems curious inrnlight of the fact that Mr. Tennille’srnpoem has been sent to yournon several occasions: once personally,rnthen via Certified Mail tornyour publisher. Random House,rnand again via Certified Mailrnthrough your employer. Wake ForestrnUniversity, in care of PresidentrnThomas K. Hearn, Jr. In addition,rnSamuel T. Cladding, Assistant tornthe President for Special Projectsrnat Wake Forest, has indicated thatrnhe personally gave you a copy ofrnMr. Tennille’s poem. Further, Irnknow that your publicist. BobrnBrown, of B&C Associates, hasrnshared Mr. Tennille’s poem withrnone or more persons outside hisrnfirm, and it would seem exceedinglyrnunlikely that Mr. Brownrnwould share this most sensitive informationrnwith outsiders, andrnleave you “out of the loop.”rnObviously, the circumstantialrnevidence points to one of the followingrntwo conclusions: either yournwere mistaken in reporting to Ms.rnLangston that you had not seenrnthe poem prior to today or you arernnow attempting to conceal yourrnprior familiarity with Mr. Tennille’srnpoem (which suggests itsrnown conclusions in turn). Becausernthe most important thingrnfor me to achieve is the truth, Irnonce again invite you to contactrnme with any information you carernto share that would shed light onrnwhich of these is the true conclusion.rnNot unlike Norman Tennille, I still awaitrna response.rnWhile a cynic could easily argue thatrnthe actions of Angelou and those closestrnto her have been in keeping with the duplicityrnand artifice that have become sorncharacteristic of Angelou’s life, he wouldrnbe missing the more important moral ofrnthis story. The diversity that supposedlyrncomes from race and gender meansrnvery little. Angelou was celebrated forrnbringing unparalleled vision and insightrnto the inauguration, something a whiternmale like Robert Frost was supposedly incapablernof offering. Maya Angelou wroterna poem that essentially expresses thernsame sentiments and uses the samernstructure and imagery, save her gratuitousrnpolitically correct references to ethnicrngroups, the environment, homosexuals,rnand greedy capitalists, as the poemrnNorton Tennille—a white male—wroternalmost ten years earlier.rn]ohn Meroney, ]r., a founder of ThernWake Forest Critic, is a writer whorndivides his time between Los Angelesrnand Winston-Salem, North Carolina.rnThe Rock ‘n’ RollrnParadoxrnby Todd SeaveyrnIwas delighted in the fall of 1992 torndiscover a new VJ on MTV, namedrnKennedy, who declared herself a Republicanrnduring her first week on the air underrnfriendly questioning from a fellowrnVJ. Asked whom she was voting for, shernsaid “Bush/Quayle” with a smile—shernwas proud not only of the Bush part.rnAPRIL 1994/45rnrnrn