Are Poets Rebels?

It seems that when despots take over a country, one of the areas that is taken control of is the media and the arts. All of a sudden poets, actors, and creative types are suddenly obsolete. Here in this country the arts and recreation has been taken out of schools. 

I wonder why are poets a threat to the status quo? Is it because we speak the truth? In the 1940s and 1950s The Beats, led by Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, presented literature in a more open and unconventional style during the staid years after the war. In the 1950s and 1960s, the confessional poets like Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton, and Sylvia Plath wrote about topics that were considered taboo. Depression, mental illness, sexuality, drugs, and suicide were written about with honesty and clarity by the authors.

I've never considered myself a rebel but, maybe I am but don't it. Poetry is to encourage, inform, challenge and create. I want to make a difference in someone's life and this is one forum that is open to me. I have listened to many other poets of all ages and stripes. Each person has their on unique style and voice. Get your work and your voice out because the world needs to hear.