Language and Class Warfare, and a Poet

Demanding that the tax rate for the richest return to 1999 levels: "class warfare."
Those working on behalf of the richest wanting to slash Medicare and Social Security: "reform."

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass (rhymes with "grass"), reading his poem "The Problem of Describing Color" (He announces it as "difficulty" but in his book Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005 it appears as "problem," page 9.) 84 seconds long. Do you have 84 seconds for poetry?:

On November 10, when UC Berkeley students peacefully protested Occupy-style, Hass, 70 years old, was holding hands with people on both sides of him and campus police jabbed him in the ribs with a baton. As far as I know, he's okay, physically.

What was that line from Orwell? Something like "When I see the police beating a man on the ground, I don't have to ask what side I'm on."

Speaking of which: video of an Iraq war vet being beaten by police in Oakland on November 2nd.

Watching Occupy-like actions from Madrid on YouTube, police rioting, beating protesters indiscriminately, a colleague noted something a commenter wrote below:

"Class warfare: the rich are now rich enough to pay half the population to kill the other half of the population."

Addendum: Hass recently published an I Was There editorial in the NYT, HERE.