Gil Scott-Heron - We Beg Your Pardon (Pardon Our Analysis) lyrics

We'd like to do an idea for you that was related to the H2OGaTe, Watergate blues In March of 1973, we wrote the Watergate blues, and some 17 months later, then-President Nixon resigned But the story didn't end there, so we didn't stop there We have prepared a sequel, and it's called, and it's called "We Beg Your Pardon America" We beg your pardon because the pardon you gave this time, was not yours to give They call it due process and some people are overdue We beg your pardon America Somebody said "brother-man gonna break a window, gonna steal a hubcap, gonna smoke a joint, brother man gonna go to jail" The man who tried to steal America is not in jail "Get caught with a nickel bag brother-man, get caught with a nickel bag", says the lady on your way to get your hair fixed "You'll do Big Ben, and Big Ben is time" But the man who tried to fix America will not do time Said they're going to slap his wrists, gonna retire him with 850 thousand dollars And America was "shocked" America leads the world in shocks Unfortunately, America does not lead the world in deciphering the cause of shock 850 thousand dollars they said and the people protested and so they saw it like "we'll give him 200 thousand dollars" Everybody said "OK, that's better" I'd like to retire with 200 thousand dollars some day San Quentin not San Clemente Do not pa** go, go directly to jail, do not collect 200 thousand dollars We beg your pardon America We beg your pardon because somehow the pardon did not sit correctly What were - what were the causes for this pardon? Well now they had "flea bite us" Rats bite us, no pardon in the ghetto They had national security, but do you feel secure with the man who tried to steal America back on the streets again? What are the results of this pardon though? Because remember, when there's causes, there's results and the results is always deeper still We now have Oatmeal Man Anytime you find someone in the middle, Anytime you find someone who is tepid, Anytime you find someone who is lukewarm, Anytime you find someone who has been in Congress for 25 years and no one ever heard of him, You've got Oatmeal Man Oatmeal Man, straddling uncomfortably, yards and feet of barbed wire It's hard to live in the middle all the time Oatmeal Man, the man who said you could fit all of his black friends in the trunk of his car and still have room for the Republican elephant Oatmeal Man But there was no crime committed Oatmeal Man says that "America, in 1975 your president will be a 1913 Ford" Regressive Circle up the wagons to defend yourself from nuclear attack Oatmeal Man, reminiscent of 1964's AuH2O, Gold Water Thank god he didn't win, but Oatmeal man didn't win Did you vote for him? I didn't vote for him But that's the first results, and the second would be the Dred Rockefeller Doubtlessly being promoted for the job he did at Attica, 43 dead and millions of Americans once again in shock Doubtlessly being promoted for the job he did on the streets of New York city where the pushers sell the d** that the government allows in the country, and then they do time They do life, and d**h or life, and d**h behind bars, while William Saxbe says he is going to dismiss the Lorton Furlough program And brother Richard X of Buffalo New York faces 13 hundred and 65 years - did he say one thousand three hundred and sixty five years? - behind bars for participating in Attica And Rockefeller faces being the Vice President of this country And all is calm and quiet along the white sands at San Clemente We beg your pardon America, we beg your pardon once again Because we found out that seven out of every ten black men behind jail, and most of the men behind jail are black Seven out of every ten black men never went to the ninth grade Didn't have 50 dollars and hadn't had 100 for a month when they went to jail So the poor and the ignorant go to jail while the rich go to San Clemente We beg your pardon America because we understand now much more deeply than we understood before But we don't want to take the pardon back, we want to issue some more Pardon brother Frank Willis, the Watergate security guard, he was only doing his job Pardon H. Rap Brown, it was only burglary Pardon Robert Vesco, it was only embezzlement Pardon Charles Manson, it was only ma** murder And pardon us while we get sick Because they pardoned William Calley, 22 dead, and America in shock And we understand all the more deeply, and we beg your pardon As unemployment spirals toward 7 percent, and it seems like 70 percent in my neighborhood As unemployment spirals and as we watch cattlemen on TV shoot cows in the head and kick 'em in the graves while millions are starving in the Sahel and Honduras and maybe even next door We understand all the more deeply as Boston becomes Birmingham becomes Little Rock becomes Selma becomes Philadelphia, Mississippi, becomes yesterday all over again We understand and we beg your pardon We beg your pardon America because we have an understanding of karma What goes around, comes around And we beg your pardon for all of the lies and all of the people who've been ruined and who look forward to next year because they can't stand to look at this one We beg your pardon America because the pardon you gave this time was not yours to give Thank you very much. Thank you very much.