Gratitude and Thanks

I asked a student of higher schooling
He said he didn't care
When I asked about the sixties
They simply said long hair

Saw a child getting programmed
Getting programmed when she wakes
And I hear a raving elder
Cursing twenty years too late

Oh, how the bastards screwed me
Son, life's too short to win
And then the students of higher schooling
Hid more pills inside his plate

So,
I'd like to
Send gratitude
And thanks

To those who
Had the courage to defy the mighty ranks
Send it to the students who wave the banners
Who held flowers up to the tanks
And to the ones who are still fighting
Yes, all my gratitude
And all my thanks

So as you sit baked and hammered
So grateful to be dead
Said freedom's here to chill out
So sit and rest your head

Think of those who fought for your right
The path you walked, they paved
And those who fought for your right
To carry it until today

Well it was they who fed the hungry
Scorned the Pentagon for peace
While the army rounded strangers up
And made the instant peace

They who made a union die
So try to fill the jails
And spread a message of unity
Across the nation's rails

And said we're destroying the house that Mack built
Kicking down the doors and pulling nails
And you've the nerve to tell me
That everyone has failed

No,
You should send
Your gratitude
And thanks

To those who
Had the courage to defy the mighty ranks
Send it to the students who wave the banners
Who held flowers up to the tanks
And to the ones who are still fighting
Yes, all my gratitude
Yes, all my thanks

I'd like to
Send out a head and a parting hand
To those who had the courage
To reach and rise and stand

Send it to the lovers and the fighters
To those who stood up and still stand
To those who will chain their wrists
And clench their fists
For here and faraway lands