Today: a poem and a sobering look at the state of freedom of speech in the US:

Student poets victimised for anti-war stance

NEW MEXICO, USA - On March 17, the day of US President George Bush's televised announcement of the imminent US military attack on Iraq, Green Left Weekly writer Bill Nevins was suspended from his teaching job at Rio Rancho New Mexico public high school. The student Poetry Slam Team/Write Club, which Nevins organises and sponsors, was also barred from performing their outspoken words in public.

This took place after an anti-war poem written by a Rio Rancho New Mexico poetry team member read out a poem over the in-school closed circuit TV system. Following the reading, the student's parent (also a teacher at the school) was ordered by an assistant principal to go home and search the student's room for a print copy of the poem. The parent declined to do so. All members of the poetry team were individually interrogated by the school administration.

" I'm here to say that Generation X
Is pissed and we are taking over,
Ripping down the American illusion of perfection
We are the future generation
I have my qualifications
I know it looks like Angel Soft paper,
But don't worry
It's a diploma
Do I look qualified?
You can take our toilet paper,
But you can't take our Revolution."