SF institution hangs protest banners as federal agents are sent to Bay Area

"On Tuesday evening, City Lights Bookstore unfurled a series of quotes across its windows on Columbus Avenue, displaying some choice lines from "Pity the Nation," a poem by San Francisco poet and City Lights founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The banners read in full: "Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, Whose sages are silenced and whose bigots haunt the airwaves. Pity the nation that praises conquerors and acclaims the bully as hero. Pity the people who allow their freedoms to erode and their rights to be washed away. My country tears of thee. Sweet land of liberty!""

"Ferlinghetti, who famously championed Allen Ginsberg's highly controversial rallying cry of free expression, "Howl," and stood alongside Jack Kerouac during the birth of the Beat Generation, penned the poem in 2007. The poem was inspired by Lebanese American writer Kahlil Gibran's poem of the same name, published posthumously in 1933. Here's a video of Ferlinghetti reading "Pity the Nation" in 2007:"

"President Donald Trump has threatened the deployment of the National Guard to San Francisco numerous times in recent weeks, in spite of the city boasting the lowest homicide rate in decades. On Wednesday, it was announced that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents were being sent to the Bay Area. There has, as yet, been no indication that the National Guard is being deployed in the city."

City Lights Bookstore displayed large banners across its Columbus Avenue windows asserting that a nation whose leaders lie, whose sages are silenced, and whose bigots dominate the airwaves should be pitied. The banners warned against praising conquerors, acclaiming bullies, and allowing freedoms and rights to erode. The display coincided with the Trump administration's announcement that federal agents, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, would be sent to the Bay Area. The administration also repeatedly threatened National Guard deployment, though no Guard presence was reported. San Francisco currently reports its lowest homicide rate in decades.

Read at SFGATE