An archival ad-lib to the recent comments on Free Speech (and censorship) in the Redroom

RIP Clark Kerr
(former Chancellor UC Berkeley)

Do not fold, spindle or mutilate
Free Speech, it wouldn't have
been the same without ya

You forced us to fight or flight,
freedom became something to seize
in another name for victory

Consequence, genesis, and dissent
gassed from under the club and the gun,
provoking the "raw materials" to revolt

Your machine was so odious at the time,
we angrily threw ourselves upon the gears
raising up raw matters thinking for themselves

We were fooled, swindled, and matriculated,
tear gassed, tested and re-arrested - and
higher education was never better for it

Learning what this Multiversity system
would never teach your children -
"That to rebel is just great"

But that was then - and this is now,
and again it begins with home and heart -
so whose Free Speech are you listening to now?

© 2003 - Hammond Guthrie and Stew Albert