Gratitude

I asked a student of higher schooling

He said he didn't care

When I asked about the sixties

They simply said long hair

Saw a child getting programmed

Getting programmed when she wakes

And I hear a raving elder

Cursing twenty years too late

Oh, how the bastards screwed me

Son, life's too short to win

And then the students of higher schooling

Hid more pills inside his plate

So,

I'd like to

Send gratitude

And thanks

To those who

Had the courage to defy the mighty ranks

Send it to the students who wave the banners

Who held flowers up to the tanks

And to the ones who are still fighting

Yes, all my gratitude

And all my thanks

So as you sit baked and hammered

So grateful to be dead

Said freedom's here to chill out

So sit and rest your head

Think of those who fought for your right

The path you walked, they paved

And those who fought for your right

To carry it until today

Well it was they who fed the hungry

Scorned the Pentagon for peace

While the army rounded strangers up

And made the instant peace

They who made a union die

So try to fill the jails

And spread a message of unity

Across the nation's rails

And said we're destroying the house that Mack built

Kicking down the doors and pulling nails

And you've the nerve to tell me

That everyone has failed

No,

You should send

Your gratitude

And thanks

To those who

Had the courage to defy the mighty ranks

Send it to the students who wave the banners

Who held flowers up to the tanks

And to the ones who are still fighting

Yes, all my gratitude

Yes, all my thanks

I'd like to

Send out a head and a parting hand

To those who had the courage

To reach and rise and stand

Send it to the lovers and the fighters

To those who stood up and still stand

To those who will chain their wrists

And clench their fists

For here and faraway lands