Education

Controversial Words

April 30, 2003 1 min read
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The following poem was written by a member of Rio Rancho High School’s poetry team and read over the school’s closed-circuit television system in February.

Revolution X

Bush said no child would be left behind

And yet kids from inner-city schools

Work on Central Avenue

Jingling cans that read

Please sir, may I have some more?

They hand out diplomas like toilet paper

And lower school standards

Because

Underpaid, unrespected teachers

Are afraid of losing their jobs

Funded by the standardised tests

That shows our competency

When I’m in detox.

This is the Land of the Free ...

Where the statute of limitations for rape is only five damn years!

And immigrants can’t run for President.

Where Muslims are hunted because

Some suicidal men decided they didn’t like

Our arrogant bid for modern imperialism.

This is the Land of the Free ...

You drive by a car whose

Bumper screams

God bless America!

Well, you can scratch out the B

And make it Godless

Because God left this country a long time ago.

The founding fathers made this nation

On a dream and now

Freedom of Speech

Lets Nazis burn crosses, but

Calls police to

Gay pride parades.

We somehow

Can afford war with Iraq

But we can’t afford to pay the teachers

Who educate the young who hold the guns

Against the “Axis of Evil”

Land of the Free ...

This is the land

If you’re politically assertive

They call you a traitor and

Damn you to ostracism.

Say good-bye to Johnny Walker Lindh

And his family.

Bye Bye.

American Pie.

So maybe

My ideas about this nation

Don’t resolve around perfection

But at least I know

Education is more important

Than money.

Land of the Free ...

If this was utopia

We’d have to see each other naked

Before we got married

But instead, we see each other naked all the time

Because the government has my social security number

And the name of my dog!

And then we make babies,

But don’t worry, they won’t be left behind

And they grow up saying

God bless America!

But they don’t know who Bush is

Because they never learned the Presidents.

And they will ride the ship Amistad

To our dreamland shores

Bearing the same shackles as us.

I’m here to say that

Generation X

Is pissed and we are taking over,

Ripping down the American illusion of perfection

We are the future generation

I have my qualifications

I know it looks like Angel Soft paper,

But don’t worry

It’s a diploma

Do I look qualified?

You can take our toilet paper,

But you can’t take our Revolution.

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