He was born is Asia Minor
A colonized Jewish man
His father the village carpenter
Worked wood in his occupied land
He was apprenticed to his father's trade
His country paid it's dues
To the colonial roman conquers
He was a working class Jew
Though conceived three months out of wedlock
The stigma never stuck
He began a three year public life
But he never made a buck
Because he spoke out against injustice
Saw that capitalism bleed the poor
He attacked self-righteous hypocrites
And he condemned the lawyers law
But they've commercialised his birthday now
The very people he defied
And they've sanctified their system
And claim he's on their side!
But if he appeared tomorrow
He'd still pay the highest cost
Being a ''radical agitator''
They'd still nail him to the cross
You see
He'd stand with the down trodden masses
Identify with the weak and oppressed
He condemn the hypocrites in church pews
And the affluent arrogant west
He'd oppose stalinist totalitarianiam
The exploitation of millions by one
And ''peace'' through mutual terror
And diplomacy through a barrel of a gun
He'd fight with joe hill waleca
Mandala and friece
Try to free the third world's millions
From hunger and despair
He'd stand with the pesants
At the pock-marked walls
They'ed hall him in on bail
He'd condemn all forms of apparthied
And he'd root in their stinking jails
He'd denounce all dictatorships
And mammon's greed
And the exploitation of others for gain
He'd oppose nuclear madness
And the waging of wars in his name
He'd mix with prostitutes and sinners
Challenge all to cast the first stone
A compassionate agitator
One of the greatest the world has ever known
He'd condemn all corrupt law and order
Tear man made hierarchies down
He'd see status and titles as dominance
And the politics of greed he'd hound
He'd fight against
The Klu Klux Klan
And the radical racist right
One of the greatest humanitarian socialist
Was comrade,
Jesus Christ.
by Phil Ochs
dedicated to Father Roy Bourgeois
keep fighting the good fight Father
CLOSE THE SOA! AKA WHISC!!!