On the second day of taxes
my government said to me,
Clean drinking water, and
for Schools, Police and Fire Protection.

On the third day of taxes
my government said to me,
Food that’s safe to eat,
Clean drinking water, and
for Schools, Police and Fire Protection.

On the fourth day of taxes
my government said to me,
Emergency health workers,
Food that’s safe to eat,
Clean drinking water, and
for Schools, Police and Fire Protection.

On the fifth day of taxes
my government said to me,
Clean air to breathe,
Emergency health workers,
Food that’s safe to eat,
Clean drinking water, and
for Schools, Police and Fire Protection.

On the sixth day of taxes
my government said to me,
Good roads to drive on,
Clean air to breathe,
Emergency health workers,
Food that’s safe to eat,
Clean drinking water, and
for Schools, Police and Fire Protection.

On the seventh day of taxes
my government said to me,
Sewers to take waste,
Good roads to drive on,
Clean air to breathe,
Emergency health workers,
Food that’s safe to eat,
Clean drinking water, and
for Schools, Police and Fire Protection.

On the eighth day of taxes
my government said to me,
Prisons to hold felons,
Sewers to take waste,
Good roads to drive on,
Clean air to breathe,
Emergency health workers,
Food that’s safe to eat,
Clean drinking water, and
for Schools, Police and Fire Protection.

On the ninth day of taxes
my government said to me,
Parks for play and picnics,
Prisons to hold felons,
Sewers to take waste,
Good roads to drive on,
Clean air to breathe,
Emergency health workers,
Food that’s safe to eat,
Clean drinking water, and
for Schools, Police and Fire Protection.

On the tenth day of taxes
my government said to me,
Libraries for all,
Parks for play and picnics,
Prisons to hold felons,
Sewers to take waste,
Good roads to drive on,
Clean air to breathe,
Emergency health workers,
Food that’s safe to eat,
Clean drinking water, and
for Schools, Police and Fire Protection.

On the eleventh day of taxes
my government said to me,
Health care for our elders,
Libraries for all,
Parks for play and picnics,
Prisons to hold felons,
Sewers to take waste,
Good roads to drive on,
Clean air to breathe,
Emergency health workers,
Food that’s safe to eat,
Clean drinking water, and
for Schools, Police and Fire Protection.

On the twelfth day of taxes
my government said to me,
Help for our veterans,
Health care for our elders,
Libraries for all,
Parks for play and picnics,
Prisons to hold felons,
Sewers to take waste,
Good roads to drive on,
Clean air to breathe,
Emergency health workers,
Food that’s safe to eat,
Clean drinking water, and
for Schools, Police and Fire Protection.

That’s what dark-skinned people must fear

There’s a long list of abuses to prove it

Here are a few of those mournful names.

Patrick Dorismond, killed for refusing

An undercover cop’s request for drugs

Shawn Bell, never got to his wedding

The cops’ 50 gunshots got to him first

Remember Diallo, armed with a wallet

Clifford Glover, only 10 years old

Timothy Stansbury, on his way to a party

So many more whose names we don’t know

Abner Louima was raped in a precinct

He’s still alive so the criminal’s in jail

Because Louima was able to counter

The slanders and smears that came his way

If you are white, please take a moment

A brief speculation, and then you may know

Imagine your children, their skin a bit darker

What will you tell them, when outside, they go

Will you tell them, police are their friends

With a mission to serve and protect

Or will you beg them to give cops a wide berth

Because the black and the brown never know who’ll be next

Worked for wages so very low

Kids who didn’t like immigrants

Went out hunting for someone like him

To torment and terrify

They wanted to terrify

Marcelo Lucero

To your murder we say no

No to the racism, hatred and fear

That took away your life so dear

We must remember your name

We will remember your name

Immigrants and native-born

To one race we all belong

All entitled to human rights

To work and live by our own lights

We must learn to live in peace

On earth in heavenly peace

We’re the Raging Grannies and we’ve come to have our say,
To speak out for the people and to tell you there’s no way
To justify a rate hike for Duke Energy today…
“No rate hike! No way!”

CHORUS:
         So listen to the people and just turn the rate hike down.
         We don’t want their toxic power plants polluting all our towns.
         We demand that you all listen to the citizens today:
         “No rate hike! No way!”

The bosses at Duke Energy grow richer every day;
They’re rakin’ in the millions and they now want us to pay.
They got a rate hike last year and they’ll get one next year, too.
That’s a thirty percent increase that they want from me and you!
REPEAT CHORUS

They’re burning coal and natural gas and it’s so plain to see
That they’re wrecking our environment and our economy.
They shouldn’t be rewarded for their wasteful business plans;
They’ll build toxic plants that should be banned.
REPEAT CHORUS

 If you cave in now to their demands there’ll be no end in sight
To the rate hikes that they’ll take from us; that gives us quite a fright!
They’ll be building nuclear power plants with ou-ur hard-earned dough,
Fukashima should have taught us that’s a crazy way to go.
REPEAT CHORUS 

CHORUS:

        (So) Take your freakin’ frackin’ drills and keep ‘em from our town,
        We don’t want your fracking turning all our water brown,
        Take your freakin’ frackin’ drills or we will shut you down!
        Hydrofracturing just sucks.

 It blows in nasty chemicals and poisons all the water;
And causes quakes beneath the earth – a thing it shouldn’t oughta;
We want safe drinking water for our sons and for our daughters,
But hydrofracturing just sucks!

        CHORUS

 You’d outsource all your workers
And slash their benefits,
Cut retirees off from health care –
That really gives us fits!
We’re sick of your tax dodging,
It’s a shameful greedy crime,
So we’ll stand with the workers
On Verizon’s picket line.

 CHORUS

 We’re done with being quiet
While the rich live off the poor.
We’re tired of your greed
And we won’t take it anymore.
We’ll strike against Verizon
‘Til the corporations learn
That the people now are risin’
To take back what we have earned.

CHORUS

The Uterus Song
(Tune: “Bye-Bye Blackbird”)
Lyrics © by Vicki Ryder

If you’re a Republican, it’s okay to screw everyone,
Just don’t say “uterus!”
You can send our kids to war while watching your investments soar,
But don’t say “uterus!”
Taking bribes used to be thought just awful;
Now fat cats pay for your campaigns, that’s lawful…
You can take our rights away and torture folks, that’s still okay.
Just don’t say… that word.

You take funds from Planned Parenthood; you’d take all our rights if ya could,
But don’t say “uterus!”
You think abortion is a sin, but what’s that fetus growin’ in?
Shh! Don’t say uterus!
You can get away with bloody torture,
Just don’t say where you were when the stork brought ya.
We’re glad you’re lookin’ out for us, so stamp your feet and make a fuss
When you hear… that word!

Since when is it a dirty word to say the “u” word? That’s absurd!
We’ll say “uterus.”
We’ll sing it strong and sing it loud; it’s a part of us that makes us proud
So we’ll say “uterus.”
We’re not ashamed to call our parts their right names,
We’re just ashamed of men who play these mind games.
So end the wars and feed the poor; do what you were elected for,
And shout out loud… that word!

Uterus and uterus,and uterus and uterus, uterus, uterus!
Uterus and uterus,and uterus and uterus, uterus, uterus!
Uterus and uterus…..

Oh, give us a beach
Where oil spills can’t reach,
And there’s no sticky goo on the sand,
Where children can play,
And the birds and fish stay
Free from harm… that’s our simple demand.

CHORUS:         
         Save our seas and our sand!
         We’re here and we’re taking a stand.
         We say NO to those rigs
         And those comp’nies so big!
         Mother Earth still comes first in our land.

We Grannies are blue.
Our predictions came true,
And their oil leaked onto our shore.
It’s gooey and black
And we can’t put it back.
So we don’t want them drillin’ no more!
CHORUS

“Drill, baby, drill”
Was a license to kill
For Halliburton, TransOcean, BP.
So boycott BP
And then maybe they’ll see
What we think of their crude oil spill.
CHORUS

Oh, we like our veggies without pesticides,
And our food without those hormones placed inside.
We like fish without PCBs,
And forests that still have trees, Oh,
We’re radical environmentalists!

Oh, we don’t like energy from fossil fuels,
‘Cause we know that they’ll run out, we ain’t no fools!
And we’d rather see those windmill blades
Than nuclear plants in the Everglades.
We’re radical environmentalists!

Yes, we’re radical environmentalists.
When people mess with Mother Earth it makes us pissed!
So get out and tell the others
That the Earth is still our mother….
Then you’ll be a true environmentalist.

Listen to the people
Listen to the people
What do they say?
What do they say?
EPA* has rent control
EPA has rent control
Come what may, come what may

Listen to the tenants
Listen to the tenants
What do they say?
What do they say?
Struggle-ing to get by
Hear the tenants as they cry,
“We’re still here, we’re still here”

*East Palo Alto
See PHOTO JOURNAL featuring tenants and Grannies marching together to protect tenants from East Palo Alto’s biggest and most greedy landlord…who refused to honor the city’s rent stabilization ordinance!