| 'tis of thee | 
| they caught the last poor man | 
| on a poor man’s vacation | 
| they cuffed him and confiscated his stuff | 
| they dragged his black ass down to the station | 
| and said, ok, the streets are safe now | 
| all your pretty white children can come out and see spot run | 
| and they came out of their houses | 
| and they looked around | 
| but they didn’t see no one | 
| my country 'tis of thee | 
| to take swings at each other on the talkshow tv why don’t you just go ahead and turn off the sun | 
| cuz we’ll never live long enough | 
| to undo everything they’ve done to you | 
| undo everything they’ve done to you | 
| above 96th street | 
| they’re handing out smallpox blankets so people don’t freeze | 
| the old dogs have got a new trick | 
| it’s called criminalize the symptoms | 
| while you spread the disease | 
| and i hold on hard to something | 
| between my teeth when i’m sleeping | 
| i wake up and my jaw aches | 
| and the earth is full of earthquakes | 
| my country 'tis of thee | 
| to take swings at each other on the talkshow tv why don’t you just go ahead and turn off the sun | 
| cuz we’ll never live long enough | 
| to undo everything they’ve done to you | 
| undo everything they’ve done to you | 
| they caught the last poor man | 
| flying away in a shiny red cape | 
| they took him down to the station | 
| and they said, boy, you should’ve known better | 
| than to try to escape | 
| i ran away with the circus | 
| cuz there’s still some honest work left for bearded ladies | 
| since they put everyone in jail | 
| exceot the cleavers and the brady’s | 
| my country 'tis of thee | 
| to take swings at each other on the talkshow tv why don’t you just go ahead and turn off the sun | 
| cuz we’ll never live long enough | 
| to undo everything they’ve done to you | 
| undo everything they’ve done to you |