CATSKILL - While it may be a trifle flowery, the English metaphysical poet, John Donne, four centuries ago, by pure happenstance, settled the issue involving the Greene County Legislature and the county’s poet laureate.
Esther Cohen is expected to be un-appointed from the position by the full legislature next week, following a chairman’s appointment in January.
The move comes in the wake of questions raised by lawmaker Michael Lanuto (District 1, Catskill) about social media messages shared on Cohen’s Facebook page involving President Donald Trump.
Legislature chairman Patrick Linger, last week, unveiled the decision in a letter to CREATE Council for the Arts executive director Stella Yoon.
“I regret to inform CREATE that as chairman [of the legislature], I am rescinding the appointment of Esther Cohen as Greene County Poet Laureate, effective immediately,” Linger wrote in the April 3 missive.
“Having investigated allegations of the promotion of violence on social
media pages controlled by Esther Cohen, it is my conclusion that the allegations are reasonably true,” Linger wrote.
“By her own admission, as published in the Mountain Eagle [newspaper], Esther “removed" the posts from her page when they were brought into question,” Linger continued.
“I believe the same admission was made to [Yoon]. Multiple legislators viewed them first-hand,” Linger wrote.
“Greene County must take a zero-tolerance stand against the promotion of
violence of any kind, made by anyone. Ms. Cohen is encouraged and welcome to have her opinions and share them at will,” he wrote.
“As the Poet Laureate is a public-facing representative appointment, those opinions cannot violate the trust of the general public in Greene County in any way, shape, or form,” Linger wrote.
The messages were brought to the legislative floor by Lanuto in early March during a County Resources committee meeting.
Yoon attended that meeting, routinely reporting on the council’s activities. When she ended the report, Lanuto asked about Cohen, saying, “before
recommending her to the board, was there any background check on her?”
Yoon explained the process and Lanuto said, “Lately I’ve been doing some background. What I found on her social media channel is pretty much the antithesis of what I believe this board stands for.”
Lanuto referenced Cohen’s Facebook page that he says stated, “Donald Trump will die from bad health. Worldwide celebrations in honor of his death,” along with a second message that Lanuto said, “looks like the President being assassinated with blood dripping down his back.”
“I can’t support a person like that,” Lanuto said. “I have no problem with the position. I have a problem with the person in that position.”
Lanuto, subsequently asked what had prompted him to do background on Cohen, said, “I can’t tell you that,” emphasizing his discomfort with the Facebook material would be the same “if it was any President.”
County Resources chairman Michael Bulich, during the committee session opined, “we may look at having Stella look at someone else to do this,” setting in motion a series of communications and discussions.
An announced statement has not been delivered by Yoon or the CREATE board of director’s president Marya Warshaw who had said, “we will be very forthcoming” in their response.
In the interim, at a recent workshop, lawmakers opted to reject a request from Yoon to let Cohen come before them to speak.
Cohen, acknowledging the messagings, says they were “satyrical reposts” not written by her, shared before her appointment and since taken down.
“I’m sorry I offended anyone with my posts,” Cohen said in a phone interview after receiving the Linger letter from Yoon.
The reposts were, “both very anti-Trump but I would never promote violence and never have, for one minute in my life,” Cohen said.
“My sympathy is with CREATE. This came out of the blue for them, but what we say on social media is not the same as our art,” Cohen said.
“We live in a country with First Amendment rights. I would question whether my work should be judged by what I share on social media,” Cohen said.
“The best indication of what my politics are is in my writing. My last book about Greene County is about all of us. I love this county,” Cohen said.
Linger, in the letter to Yoon, stated, “it is my hope that we can work with CREATE to tighten the requirements of this position and move forward.”
The poet laureate position was established by the legislature, last year. The task of finding the right person for the job was given to CREATE.
It is expected the un-appointment will occur on April 15 at the legislature’s regular monthly meeting, putting the matter in a spot that was eloquently foretold by Donne who wrote;
“Such wilt thou be to me, who must, Like th’ other foot, obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun.”
