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With Liberty and Justice for Some

from Poor Thing by Sam Steffen

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lyrics

Dear country, I’m writing to tell you I’m fighting to come up with some single thing
To ignite or inspire the old poet’s desire, in me, of thee, to sing—
But no praise can I utter with my pride in the gutter as the national anthem gets sung
To a flag that looks dignified that always has signified: liberty and justice for some

I’ve poured through the mystery of American history that was told from the conqueror’s view
That corrupted a heritage to respin a narrative about what white colonizers went through
Who committed genocide, vanquished a countryside, which through outrageous violence was won
Executing hypocrisy in the name of democracy, with liberty and justice for some

I’ve been stumbling and reeling as I grope for the feeling of freedom spelled out in the pomes
But what of the Apache, the Blackfoot, Comanche, the Africans, torn from their homes?
Your freedom’s to subjugate, enslave, kill, appropriate—when will we be free from
The powers that perpetrate, promote and perpetuate liberty and justice for some?

they say here you’re free to do whatever you want to do—it’s true, long as you got the means
without any middle, most have less than little, while a few hoard an amount that’s obscene
and I don’t see an end to it when sixty percent of it will remain in the hands of just one
a condition arisen from capitalism, which lends liberty and justice to some

At the borders they’ve ordered soldiers to bolster the walls they put up as defense
To stop immigration to an immigrant nation that’s composed of what it’s now against
Inventing solutions citing The Constitution to further qualify the word: “Everyone”
Giving no heeding to words or their meanings where there’s liberty and justice for some

I turn on the TV most evenings all I see are tragedies broadcast as news
A white officer shooting a black man refusing to admit to what he didn’t do
in the grief and excitement the cries for indictment to the highest authority’s brung
which forgives law enforcement and displays the endorsement that there’s liberty and justice for some

The acts of our president are now without precedent, he’s made crimes that the Senate won’t try—
Proving by the hour that for people in power the rules just don’t seem to apply
Acting outrageously, speaking insensibly in tired corruptible tongues
Outlawing innocence to celebrate ignorance, with liberty and justice for some

I stood in my vacuum at the back of the classroom, taking History over again
With the teacher insistin that everyone listen and kindly repeat after him:
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the U—” hang on a minute—how come?
One nation, miserable, neath God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for some—

credits

from Poor Thing, released July 24, 2022

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Sam Steffen Boise, Idaho

Sam Steffen is a Pennsylvania-bred, Boise-based singer-songwriter whose songs are the torch-wood for a new generation of folk music that has learned from the best stuff in the tradition and aims in spite of everything to keep the human spirit alive and kicking. A versatile musician and skilled finger-picker, Sam is at heart a story-teller, and a prolific one. ... more

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