president of Wake Forest University.rnTennille told Hearn of the similaritiesrnand Angelou’s failure to respond.rn”Would you make sure m letter reaehesrnProfessor Angclou and relay my requestrnfor a response?” asked Tennille.rnBy the middle of July, Angelou, RandomrnHouse, and Hearn had all failed tornrespond to Tennille, except for a shortrnnote he receiyed from a lower-leyel WakernForest administrator who said, “Hearnrnis away for a eouple of weeks” and Angelourn”has been in great demand as arnspeaker.” Although that mav be therncase, Angelou’s schedule certainly wasn’trncrowded by her responsibilities at WakernForest, where she is paid o’cr $100,000 arnyear: she offered no classes during thernentire 1992-1993 academic year, sayernone course in the fall that she canceledrnafter two weeks.rnTennille also wrote to John Huie, directorrnof Outward Bound. Rumor had itrnthat Tennille’s poem came to Angelou’srnattention because she had extensive contactrnwith individuals connected withrnOutward Bound after Clinton selectedrnher. Because I thought this rumorrnseemed particularly damaging, 1 contactedrnHuie and another OutwardrnBound staffer, both of whom confirmedrnAngelou’s involvement. Not only didrnAngelou meet yvith individuals closelyrnconnected yvith Outward Bound, but shernhad a three-hour conversation with Huiernwhere Outward Bound was discussed “inrngreat depth.” When I interviewed Huie,rnwho had received copies of Tennille’srnletters to Angelou and had been apprisedrnthat the central images of the inauguralrnpoem might not be entirely her own, herndoggedly argued that the story was “benign,”rn”esoteric,” and hardh “newsworthy.”rnCharitably construed, his wordsrnto me were clearly designed to protectrnAngelou, whom he had asked to be onrnthe Outward Bound advisory board andrnwhom he said may have contributedrnmoney to the organization.rnFluie revealed that during his lengthyrnmeeting with Angelou, she “shared herrnstruggle” over creating the poem forrnClinton. It was clear from Huie’s statementsrnthat she had difficulty rising tornthe occasion. Angelou had a great dealrnof access to information about OutwardrnBound not only because of her lengthyrndiscussion with Huie but also because arnman reported to be a mentor to Angelournhas been extensively involved with thernorganization. In addition, a framed calligraphyrnversion of Tennille’s poem hangsrnon the walls in the offices of many peoplernwho have been through the program,rnor are associated with it, includingrnArthur Sulzberger, Jr., publisher of thernNew York Times.rnIn a recent television intervicyv withrnOprah Winfrey, Angelou described thern”struggle” she experienced during thernwriting of the poem. “I had to wait untilrnit could get all into the marrow of myrnbones, and get into mv fingernails, andrninto my hair follicles, and when I finallyrnunderstood what I had to do, then Irnstarted writing,” she said. Angelou evenrnrepeated a bizarre ritual she frequentlyrnfollows when writing: she checks into arnlocal motel, asks the manager to removernany decorative material in the room thatrnmay distract her, and with a Bible, thesaurus,rnyellow legal pad, and bottle ofrnsherry, starts to create profound literature.rnThe concept, structure, and centralrnimages of the two poems are, as Tennillernnotes, quite similar. The only majorrndifference I could perceive is thatrnAngelou’s poem features a gratuitous,rnvoluminous, out-of-context filler aboutrnethnic groups, homosexuals, greedy capitalists,rnand the environment. One wondersrnwhy she has failed to respond, in almostrnnine months, to appeals to her, herrnpublisher, and her employer from a manrnwho, very politely but very pointedly,rnsuggests that she ma) have freely borrowedrnfrom and built upon his material.rnIn fact, I have made repeated attempts tornget Angelou to respond to these developments.rnNone of my telephone callsrnhas been returned. Tennille declined tornsay whether he is considering legal actionrnfor copyright infringement; he clearlyrnwould like to hear from Angelou first.rnThe moral of this story is not so muchrnthat Angelou may hae borrowed extensivelyrnfrom Tennille’s earlier work. It isrnthat those who wrote about the extraordinaryrndiversity she brought to the openingrnmoments of the Clinton administrationrnare now in the position of havingrnto admit, at the very least, that the centralrnimages of her poem did not come, asrnshe has said, from the “genius of thernAfrican American canon of art” becauserna white male wrote a similar poem ninernyears earlier.rnA cynic could argue not only that NortonrnTennille beat Maya Angelou to thernpunch, but that he was her inspiration.rnPerhaps Angelou’s approach to writingrnClinton’s poem was similar to her approachrnto the rest of her life: changingrnher name, purporting to be a professorrnbut teaching no classes, and representingrnherself on a record album of calypsornmusic as being from Trinidad ratherrnthan from a dusty little town in Arkansasrnnot far from President Clinton’s home.rnPerhaps.rn]ohn Meroney is a Publius Fellow at ThernClaremont Institute near Los Angeles.rnCOMMONWEALrn’^'(ftfc^^^’^r^”’rn•HpHHHi-JB^rnNotes From thernImmigration Frontrnby Ruth CoffeyrnIn less than two generations, Americarnhas evolved from a nation of proud,rncourageous, freedom-loving citizens intorna fragmented group of pandering, cowardlyrnsupplicants who spend their daysrnpleading with ethnic “political piranhas”rnand their advocates in the media to forgivernthem for taking up space in theirrnown country, speaking their own language,rncherishing their own traditionsrnand history, and, above all, having therntemerity to ask that the laws of this landrnbe obeyed. Proof that we are no longer arncountry of red-blooded Americans whornbrook no interference from any foreignrncountry was the news report of a Marchrn8, 1993, “hearing” held at Fort Mason,rnCalifornia, to collect testimony fromrn”immigrant” (translate, “illegal alien”)rnwomen claiming to be the victims of everythingrnfrom rape to inadequate wages.rnCoordinated bv organizations withrn44/CHRONICLESrnrnrn