There are those who would argue I’m unpatriotic
But I think conformity’s like a narcotic.
It dumbs us and numbs us so we just except
The way that things are, completely inept.

This country we once called the land of the brave
Has fallen to greed and bias, depraved.
The words that were written in the Constitution
Cry out to our government for revolution;
Because “we the people” ought to have rights,
Because “we the people” should stand up and fight.

Abandoned the old world to end tyranny,
But is majority rule any better, I plead.
Over our borders illegal’s still tramp
While on our paychecks the lazy man camps.

The rights of a speaker always in question
When they choose to speak against the convention.
Founded by misfits, founded on God
We spat on the black man and over him trod.
And in the lull of a classroom the pledge on the ‘com
Some still sit, and are silent, withdrawn

The parties chewing on each other’s faces
Enough to call the others disgraces.
“United we stand” against one another
Rejecting food stamps to poor single mothers.

Those who would lead pursue popularity
All smiles and handshakes but lacking sincerity.
What it means to be American, Well, this is it
To be an American, is to be a hypocrite.

To promise equality and segregate
To grant freedom of speech and incarcerate
To protect our pursuits for life’s happiness’s
And signs us up, ship us off for Saigon’s madness.

Its to send our boys over to fight wars that aren’t ours
God Bless their souls, so many in harm.
While here on the home front debt builds and brews
We owe so much to China we sold red, white and blue.

What it meant to be American, I think I know
It meant to be someone different and to let it show.
It meant to see a problem and not fear to address it
It meant to notice a wound and do more than caress it.

An American stands up for what he believes
He is who he is and no one deceives
He doesn’t lie and slander and boast
He doesn’t sit back a miserable host.

An American is a Martin Luther King
A Patrick Henry, who fights for things.
To be an American was to hold a sign
To write a song that earned you time.

To be an American was to be a rebel.
It was to be in the shoe of the normal a pebble.
But today to be American is to go with the flow,
To work nine to five, to pay taxes and vote.

To salute at the pledge and sometimes not even
To let smiles deceive us despite what they believe in
To be an American was supposed to be great
Now were the bones left on the plate.

After time and greed and corruption devoured
What we dragged here from England aboard the Mayflower
Am I proud to be an American? I sure wish I was
But I’m not, sadly, and that is because…

We aren’t the great nation we set out to be
We’re just like the others, even tyranny
For what is majority rule you see
But to tell the minority “Give up and agree.”

To be an American is to see this mess
And not write a paper about all our success.
It’s to put my fist down, lay my rep on the line
And say we need to change and demand it is time.