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Ferguson USA

by James Rustad

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1.
In these hot Florida streets You never know what creeps you'll meet They don't want you hanging round So they'll claim it's "stand your ground" If you're young and you are black They will needlessly attack They will take your life away With no consequence to pay Murder in the first degree Criminals with no penalty Something's very wrong you see Something's terribly wrong Don't shoot him! Don't shoot him! Crazy gun-wielding man Don't shoot him! Don't shoot him! Crazy gun-wielding man There's no innocence today And they robbed their lives away And there is no turning back From a murderous attack In horror I recoil And my blood begins to boil How can you kill an unarmed boy? How can you kill an unarmed boy? Murder in the first degree Criminals with no penalty Something's very wrong you see Something's terribly wrong Don't shoot him! Don't shoot him! Crazy gun-wielding man Don't shoot him! Don't shoot him! Crazy gun-wielding man
2.
One for off-duty cops in uniform Two for neighborhood watch patrol Three for private security firms Four for profiling pedestrian checks Five because he didn't like the way his pants sagged Six for redline segregation Seven for American apartheid Eight for White privilege 17 Shots in the St. Louis night Black lives matter this just isn't right Resistance March to the Gateway Arch 17 Shots in the St. Louis night Nine for the Military Police State Ten for ritual sacrifice Eleven for state sanctioned violent acts Twelve for the people who "wait for the facts" Thirteen against the weekend of resistance Fourteen for law and order Fifteen for Jim Crow and kill what you don't know Sixteen because the cop just had a bad day Seventeen because he needed to empty his chamber Seventeen because he needed to empty his chamber 17 Shots in the St. Louis night Black lives matter this just isn't right Resistance March to the Gateway Arch 17 Shots in the St. Louis night
3.
Down in Ferguson, Missouri A young black boy has lost his life His name was Michael Brown He was a good boy for his whole life His body laid four hours in the street What an injustice this is not right How many mothers must cry for our fallen brothers? How many fathers must mourn for their sons? How many steps backward must we take to move forward? With Michael Brown we raise our hands to the sky With Michael Brown we raise our hands to the sky There's different laws for different people There's different rules for different colors Society should be fair and equal For Michael Brown this did not apply How many mothers must cry for our fallen brothers? How many fathers must mourn for their sons? How many steps backward must we take to move forward? With Michael Brown we raise our hands to the sky With Michael Brown we raise our hands to the sky
4.
Here's my Message to Murrieta Down in Southern California You spit on Lupillo Rivera's Face Picket signs of hatred all over the place Here's my Message to Murrieta You call them illegal aliens, I call them refugees Northern triangle violence rates brought Central America to its knees They force children to traffic drugs as the homicide rate climbs sky high Maras gangs make maquillas workers pay a tax If they don't then they will die (here's what I'm talkin' bout) Here's my Message to Murrieta Down in Southern California You spit on Lupillo Rivera's Face Picket signs of hatred all over the place Here's my Message to Murrieta Before you holler and scream at women and children on the bus Let me take you back into history which led them to look for help from us El Salvador March 24, the year 1980 Archbishop Oscar Romero spoke about human rights and poverty His liberation theology was too much for reactionaries to bear They didn't want a populist movement gaining ground anywhere The rulers of his country ordered killers to shoot him right through the heart They assassinated him after homily and prayer before Eucharist was to start Here's my Message to Murrieta Down in Southern California You spit on Lupillo Rivera's Face Picket signs of hatred all over the place Here's my Message to Murrieta President Ronald Reagan sent US Military Aid Repressive Right Wing governments in Central America got paid 70,000 dead in Salvadoran Civil War, in Honduras 200 people disappeared Death Squads tore through Guatemala 200,000 died They massacred Mayan villages, Reagan lied and looked the other way He called it Communist disinformation: "Don't let the Soviets have their way" El Salvadorans fled the blood bath and moved to New York and LA Some learned gang tactics like extortion and murder Then they came back to Salvador to stay Now the Children have to journey 1,000 miles away To Murrieta Here's my Message to Murrieta Down in Southern California You spit on Lupillo Rivera's Face Picket signs of hatred all over the place Here's my Message to Murrieta

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Artwork by Jenny Miller. Copyright 2014. All Rights Reserved.

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released November 24, 2014

Lyrics and Music by James Rustad. Copyright 2014. All Rights Reserved.
Recorded by Jim Perry in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY in October 2014.

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James Rustad Tampa, Florida

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