Georgia`s poets, writers demand Bush Street be renamed

TBILISI, August 14 (Itar-Tass) -- A group of young poets and writers
gathered on Saturday in George Bush Street in Tblilisi demanding it is
renamed. The participants in the rally said they did not want Bush Street
to be in Tbilisi, because, as they claimed, "Bush never followed the
interests of the US people."
Young poets demanded the authorities renamed the street, giving it the
name of a famous US 'poet of democracy' Walt Whitman /1819-1892/, who
expressed the "ideals of democracy."
The participants in the rally painted black the plate with the name of
the street. As the police appeared, one of the poets recited a poem, which
insulted the police. Three participants were detained "for insult and
disobedience." They may be either fined or arrested for as long as 25 days.
A year earlier, Georgia's radical opposition Labour Party initiated to
return the historic name to the street - Melaanskaya. Bush Street is in
Tbilisi's one of central regions. It got the name in 2005 following the
visit of the former US president to Georgia.