Category Archives: Children & Youth

Stop, Listen

Tune: For What It’s Worth by the Buffalo Springfield
By: Jo-Hanna Read

there’s something happening here
look around you it’s coming clear
we see young people everywhere
tellin’ us that we need to care

it’s time to stop // listen, what’s that sound?
listen to the young folks gather round

there’s so much change in the air
sometimes more than we think we can bear
young people speaking their minds
building so much resistance all the time

it’s time we stop // listen, what’s that sound?
listen to the young folks, gather round

what a time for us to meet
all the young people in the street
singin’ songs and carrying signs
we need to be there at their side

it’s time we stop // listen, what’s that sound?
listen to the young folks, gather round

so many issues strike deep
so many promises to keep
we want to let young people know we are here
to back you up in your vision so clear

we better stop // listen, what’s that sound?
listen to the young folks, gather round

stop, listen, what’s that sound?
listen to the young folks, gather

Gaggle for Youth

By Hinda Kipnis
Tune: Side by Side

Oh we’re a gaggle of grannies,
Urging you off of your fannies,
We’re raising our voice.
We want a new choice.
Kids come first!

With global warming unending.
Nuclear wars that are pending.
Their future’s at stake,
Truth isn’t fake.
Kids come first.

Whether it’s school shootings,
Environmental demise.
Youth are now our leaders.
Adults brainwashed by lies.

So join this gaggle of grannies.
Get up off of your fannies
We’re telling you now
We’re angry and how
Kids come first.
We really mean it.
Kids come first.
We mean precisely,
Kids Come First
We will say it very nicely.
Kids Come First.
Read our lips.
Kids Come First.

Until the Plan for the Jail is Undone

Tune: Home on the Range
By Laurie Rostholder

  • Chorus:

We don’t want a youth jail.
A place where our kids go to fail.
We want money spent
On plans with intent
To keep our kids learning and free.

Don’t give us a jail
Where our kids go to fail
And the judges have such a nice space.
Don’t claim you’re concerned
When our trust is not earned
And our faith in King County misplaced.

More children of color
End up in the jail.
Where is the justice in that?
We want no kids locked up
Where they just get fucked up.
And the contractors’ wallets get fat.

  • Chorus

The land’s full of waste.
With more than a trace
Of toxins to make our kids sick.
Another good reason why
The jail should not fly.
We won’t accept such a big risk.

Dow blocked our appeal.
His support is not real
To stop youth incarceration.
We want all to know
We’ll continue to show
Till the plan for the jail is undone.

Prime Time Slime

  • Edmonton Grannies, adapted by Karen Schneider-Chen 
  • tune: Home on the Range

Oh, give us TV, without violence, please!
We’ve discussed this at least fifty years.
We’re sick and we’re tired
To see programming mired
In murder and mayhem and fear.

Chorus:
How do children learn
To be wise, free thinking and strong?
They need role models who
Show the kind thing to do,
Who demonstrate violence is wrong.

Do you wonder why crime increases each time,
With those do-it-yourself training shows?
How to rape, rob and scam with complete diagram.
We are truly fed up, heaven knows!

Chorus

Don’t train kids for crime,
With your prime time slime—
Put spunk and adventure right back.
We want FCC
To enrich our TV
With programs of fancy and fact.

Chorus