O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
Those are the words they taught me to sing.
But what of the slaves who were once bought and sold?
And workers exploited in pursuit of our gold.
Countries plundered by a blessed autocrat
I don’t remember hearing songs about that.
From senseless wars we’ve fought far and wide,
Where is the song about infanticide?
And the nearly one million Iraqis we killed?
I must have been absent when that was instilled.
American leaders stand idly by,
While each day more Palestinians die.
The whole world can see it, and yet we deny
If you can’t hear it, does a child really cry?
Imagine it was your land, where bombs fall like rain.
Imagine it was your people, circling the drain.
Imagine it was your family, destroyed in a flash.
Imagine it was your culture, reduced to white ash.
To the leaders of the free world, as some like to say
To this bastion of democracy, answer me pray,
How many kids did your bombs kill today?
And are you still proud of the American way?
- by Marc Cohen