Still On The Beat

Did Lawrence Ferlinghetti really write this back in 2003? Wow... If you don't know the name, Ferlinghetti is a legend, one of the famous old Beat poets of the 1950s, a fellow traveller with Jack Kerouac and others. Ferlinghetti was also one of the signatories of a paid advert, Not in Our Name, that the New York Times refused to run at the time of Bush's re-inauguration:

We believe that peoples and nations have the right to determine their own destiny, free from military coercion by great powers. We believe that all persons detained or prosecuted by the United States government should have the same rights of due process. We believe that questioning, criticism, and dissent must be valued and protected. We understand that such rights and values are always contested and must be fought for.

We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility for what their own governments do — we must first of all oppose the injustice that is done in our own name. Thus we call on all Americans to RESIST the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration. It is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate. We choose to make common cause with the people of the world.