On this seventh day of the seventh month of the year 2007, I'd like to draw attention to two things that give me hope.

1. Al Gore and the whole Live Earth thing. (I hate that Yahoo describes him as "giddy", as if he were a teenager or something, they should have said "confident" or "ecstatic")

So who knows how much good this will do in the long run? But it's a first step. And at least this decade won't be a total political wash for the USA.

2. Lawrence Ferlinghetti's acceptance speech as he accepted the National Book Foundations's "Literarian of the Year" in 2005.

Especially his poem:

"Are there not still fireflies?"

Are there not still fireflies?
Are there not still four leaf clovers?
Is not our land still beautiful, our cities
Never bombed by foreign invaders,
Never occupied by iron armies speaking iron
tongues?
Are not our warriors still valiant, ready to defend
us?
Are not our Senators still wearing fine togas?
Are we not still a great people in the greatest
country in all the world?
Is this not still a free country?
Are not our views still ours, our gardens still
full of flowers, our ships with full cargoes?
Why then do some still fear the barbarians coming,
coming, coming in their huddled masses?
What is that sound that fills the air, drumming,
drumming?
Is not Rome still Rome?
Is not Los Angeles still Los Angeles?
Are these really the last days of the Roman Empire?
Is not beauty still beauty and truth still truth?
Are there not still poets? Are there not still
lovers?
Are there not still mothers, sisters and brothers?
Is there not still a full moon once a month?
Are there not still fireflies?
Are there not still stars at night?
Can we not still see them in bold night signaling
to us our so-called manifest destinies?

Lawrence Ferlinghetti