First world democracy
Here in America
A poor midwest kid
With stars in his eyes
Decides to heed the call of patriotism
Fight for all our freedom
Do his part to win
The war on terrorism
Run up on global Jihad
With a great big yee-haw
See whose left standing
So he enlists
And prepares and he trains
And he prepares and he trains
And he prepares and he trains
But when he gets there
He finds his guns taking aim
At the innocent
Mostly old men women and children
And his training taught him
Its us or them
So what then
Comes home on leave
Sees the town for the last time
With family and friends
Comes home to mothers house
Room just like he left it
In his uniform
He gets decked out
Shines his medal
Takes his pistol
Into his mouth
Prepares for the blast
And awaits the silence
Here in America
On the east coast
Or the west coast
Or anywhere with
Enough black or brown folks
To have a ghetto
Our boy never bought
Into the American dream
But he lives in the projects
And scopes out his prospects
And he wouldn’t mind being
The first in his family to attend college
So he enlists in the marines
From the halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli
What a great big world to see
With so many nice
People to kill
He comes back half alive
And half dead
And not just in the body
But in the head
And he cant find a job
And he cant keep his mind right
Long enough
To fight for the benefits promised him
He enlisted
To get his mom out
Of roach infested tenements
But now he would be
Happy just to get back in
Another homeless veteran
Up here in America
The land of the free
The home of the brave
First world democracy
The first world
The free world
We hear in the first world
We got freedom
And in the third world
They got free trade zones
Where first world corporations
Can exploit the labor of children
But take a good hard look
At the real face of American poverty
See the places where
Those factories used to be
Gary Indiana, Detroit
Philadelphia, Youngstown
Then see luxury mansions
The division of wealth in
The united states of America
Is greater than it is in Rwanda
Go down to fifth street
Downtown los angeles
See the Mellon bank
See skid row
And you tell me where’s the justice
We talk about third world countries
Well then what the fuck is this?
We got more empty housing units
Than homeless
Here in America
Where it is a crime
To take shelter from the cold
Where the destitute
Have to choose
Between surviving
And breaking the law
Where empty apartments
Are under armed guard
Here in America
Grandpa is sick
And you’re hoping the doctors
Will do all they can for him
Well you really should
Have planned for this
You should have worked harder
Or maybe worked smarter
So you could have gone to Harvard
Maybe have been a Rhodes scholar
Maybe then you could afford
The best modern medicine has to offer
But you didn’t
But don’t worry
Medicare will cover a hospital bed
A handful of meds
To keep him still through the night
Oh you wanted them to help
Actually try to keep him alive
Boy you must have stars in your eyes
This is America
We don’t do that here
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