Outside Agitators

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Outside Agitators

 

There are always rabblerousers

In every cause and every movement

There is always an element of chaos

Born of anger, rage, frustration

But when the words Outside Agitators

Are used by the authorities beware

What follows is an act of brutal violence

In the name of law and order

 

Outside Agitators was used to batter

The marchers for civil rights

On the Edmund Pettis Bridge

 

Outside Agitators was used to justify

The killing of student protestors at

Kent and Jackson State

 

Outside Agitators was employed in the

Tear gas and baton attacks on students

Of the free speech movement in Berkeley

 

So when you hear the words Outside

Agitators beware: We know what follows

 

Remember Kent State

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN HISTORY

Remember Kent State

 

Back in the year 1970

(most of you don’t remember)

The National Guard in the state of Ohio

Shot four students dead

They were not violent

They were not breaking the law

They were shot dead for being there

Shot dead for caring

Shot dead for the war machine

In Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam

 

We knew they hated us

We didn’t know they’d kill us

After Kent State we knew

We’d never forget the bloodstained path

The tears of innocence

The end of an era of hope

 

More than any other event of the decade

Kent State divided the nation

Kent State burned itself into our psyche

It spawned a generation of distrust

A distrust of government and authority

Passed down the years to today

 

If you love this nation

If you love its principles and ideals

If you want America to endure

Then remember Kent State

Remember Jackson State

Remember the age of protest

Remember the disenchantment

And make sure it never happens again

Peaceful Protest

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Peaceful Protest

 

The first amendment to the constitution

Our fundamental human rights

Is not just freedom of speech

Not just freedom of and from religion

The first amendment includes

The right to peaceful protest

The right to gather on the public square

To raise your collective voices

To challenge government authority

To express a dissenting view

 

To be free from police harassment

To be secure in your safety

To expect public servants to protect you

In the engagement of your rights

Is as fundamental to our republic

As the right to vote

 

A government that abhors protest

That suppresses public activism

That punishes those who march

That beats protestors with riot sticks

That demands passive obeyance

That regards protestors as mobs

That employs violent dispersal

Does not deserve the name

Of a republic

 

Let the students be

Let them engage their civil rights

Let them practice the art of politics

Let them demonstrate their involvement

As citizens of a democratic state

 

Mississippi Law

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN JUSTICE

Mississippi Law

 

Anything goes in Mississippi

The law is what they say it is

Whether you fall victim to abuse

Depends largely on what day it is

 

They taze you bro if they feel like it

They might beat you or abuse you

They don’t take you to the jailhouse

If they did they just might lose you

 

They’ve been doing it for decades

Getting away with it, too

If you think you’ve got your rights

You don’t know them like we do

 

This world can be an evil place

It doesn’t matter where you are

For evil thrives in evil hearts

But Mississippi sets the bar

 

These people who did the deeds

Should never be free again

What they did is beyond forgiving

They’ve become less than men