What about that scholarship money?
That you accepted so grateful,
It probably came from war investments
Which you now claim are hateful,
And next year's scholarship
From a different endowment fund,
Was invested in Israeli pharmaceuticals
Oops, now they will be shunned.
Say, let me see what you are wearing
Your clothes, jewelry and shoes,
Was any of it created with slave labor
If so, it's time to pay your dues,
Divest yourself from those purchases
The gold obtained by hand by oppressed miners,
As you stand on the quad screaming slogans
Having food catered to you from nearby diners.
By any standard
We are all complicit (including you),
A butterfly is crushed in Bermuda
And Fifi the Pomeranian craps on my shoe,
To completely divest yourself and your University
From the military industrial complex,
You need to spend your life in a cave
While giving up sex.
The majority of mass protests prompt dialogue
But not necessarily change,
Usually some folks die
Such that the chessboard pieces rearrange,
And there isn't always somebody that you can sue
Because Free speech protesting is your Right,
But do wear a helmet just in case a brick
Is thrown your way in the dark of night.
I protested the Vietnam war
On a college campus in the Miami Valley,
We occupied the lawn of the administration building
Sang our slogans, smoked weed and bragged about our rally,
And then came the shootings at Ohio State
After which we pondered the divestment of someone else's existence,
A lot of scared kids quit the game at that moment
And shipped home without resistance.
You are welcome to exercise your freedom of speech
And protest to your heart's content,
But please don't create any property damage
Or we may consider your education money poorly spent,
Such that we might ask you to leave
So we can find a more appreciative pupil,
One with high principles
And at least one moral scruple.