PATTI SMITH - PATTI SMITH 'STRUGGLES' TO LIVE IN AMERICA

PATTI SMITH 'STRUGGLES' TO LIVE IN AMERICA

Punk poet PATTI SMITH finds it "difficult" living in her native America, because of her disdain for the current president, George W. Bush. The liberal singer, 60, supported Bush's Democrat rival John Kerry in the 2004 presidential campaign and is looking forward to the end of Bush's term in 2008. Having witnessed the fall of New York City's Twin Towers on 11 September (01), Smith has been horrified by the subsequent drastic changes in U.S. law. She tells London's Time Out magazine, "I'm not afraid of terrorism at all. I'm afraid of our loss of freedom, loss of mobility, loss of global comradeship. "I live down the road from the World Trade Centre, I saw it come down. I knew people who died there. "That did not have the same emotional effect on my morale as what Bush's administration has done in response. "A stronger, more decent man could have used September 11 to global advantage, tried to some dialogue but it went the opposite way. "We were betrayed by the media, our government, even the Democratic party. Now I find it difficult to be in my country."