Pity The Nation by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

[kentuck]

“Pity The Nation”


Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.”

[lark]

1. Damn, this had to be written some time ago and oh it's way more true today.

[Ocelot II]

2. Incredibly prescient! It's not that old, written in 2006, but

as much as things sucked 15 years ago, he certainly predicted how much they'd suck now.

[VGNonly]

3. I met Lawrence

at City Lights Bookstore about 15 years ago. He passed last Feb, just short of his 102nd birthday.

I am the door.

[kentuck]

4. Very cool!