Oh fair young men who gave your life,
a man takes man to be his wife
and prayer should never have a part
in cleaning up a child's heart.
We're taxed on this and taxed on that
and never question all the fat
that goes to countries we should scorn
but fill their barns with wheat and corn.

Oh fair young men that went to war,
if we were brave we would restore
the jobs for us, take back the con,
bring back our factories from Taiwan.
Tomatoes here would overflow, not ship them in from Mexico.
We'd have our farmers grow them fresh
and pass a law to speak English.

Oh fair young men who gave their all,
who had the courage, faced the call
to fight for victory in their land,
be unafraid to take a stand;
They've gathered people in their groups,
given land to UN troops.
Our constitution is denied,
it's UN law that's now applied.

Oh fair young men who paid the cost,
we're going down, perhaps are lost
but still we stretch out friendly hands
to Russia, China, other lands.
We feed their people, pay their bills,
let them in with all their ills;
A Christian nation? Very odd
our schools cannot talk of God.

Oh fair young men, we fast forget,
though Pearl Harbor smolders yet
and sell us things we used to make;
our enemies by no mistake
will hold the knife up to our throat
and as we die they smile and gloat,
they pick our pockets and pretend
that we need them and they're our friend.

Oh fair young men, how could you know
just how far down that we could go,
drugs and guns and casual sex,
MTV and Malcolm X.
The UN flag is flying high
and we can't wait to spend and buy
some junky trinket from Hong Kong
while schools teach that you were wrong.

Copyright © Linda Lee. Reprinted by permission.