Oh, Mayor Brown! Oh, Mayor Brown!
The sky is falling down --
Upon my Fourth Ward neighborhood
That borders on downtown.
Oh Mayor Brown! I can't skip out
Of working at a school
To come by City Council
And ask you to renounce all
The plans of redevelopers
That disobey the rules.
How can I teach my Fourth Ward kids
The basic rules of math,
When budgets seem to multiply
For housing cut in half?
Can I teach kids on Andrews Street
The concept of addition -
If all they see around them is
Subtraction and division?
What will they learn of justice
And common decency,
If poor folks still do all the work
To serve their close-knit neighborhood,
While public funds are eaten up
By outside agencies?
How can we speak of anything
But "inequality"
If money gives authority
To demolish whole communities,
Outweighing people's equal right
To assemble peaceably? |
Oh Jew Don Boney, John Castillo,
Councilmember Todd --
What lessons shall we teach our youth:
To seek the truth of God?
To have respect for history?
Compassion for the elderly?
Or shall we leave a legacy
Of lies, deceit, and fraud?
Oh Felix Fraga, Martha Wong,
Carroll and Calloway --
Can we teach children right from wrong
If grown-ups either break the law
Or look the other way?
Dear Mayor Brown, please tell me how
Accounting should be taught
To little Fourth Ward children
Who watch as multi-millions
Are siphoned off civilians,
The waiting list for shelter grows,
While sturdy houses row by row
Are razed to empty lots.
Oh, Mayor Brown! Oh, Mayor Brown!
The roof is coming down!
On our oldest African neighborhood
That once was Freedmen's Town.
No, Mayor Brown, we can't leave out
The children of Fourth Ward
Who want to save their neighborhood,
For if their voices go unheard
How can our young ones ever learn
That everybody counts? |