“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 — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away..”
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, New Poems, City Lights
"Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried, the little children died in the streets."
W. H. Auden, Epitaph To a Tyrant
"All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born."
W. B. Yeats, Easter, 1916
Are we not exceptional?
Are you not entertained?
