November Coalition Attends 1st Annual SpoCannabis Rally May 7, 2005, at The Big Easy Concert House, Spokane, WA Song Lyrics

Katana Christen (left) & Nora Callahan perform

Ode to Len Bias: a Ballad of the Drug War

Lyrics by Nora Callahan

In a time now nearly two decades ago
Len Bias, a ball star did a line of some coke
He didn't huff on a crack pipe, but he died on the court
Now we're the world's mightiest jailer -
Jailer on earth

In Congress our leaders made quite a guffaw
And Tip O'Neil shouted, we need new laws
You'd think life in prison, a last resort
But not in our country, where we love,
We love our sports!

So they sent in police, devised sentencing schemes
Imprisoning millions on drug conspiracies
It matters not to the cops, if the wife didn't know
Haul her butt off to prison, send a message -
Send a message ya know

Though rich and poor, brown and white equally use
In prisons and jails it seems there's more room
For those who are broke, and the darker the skin
The longer in prison, the judge -
The judge has you serve

Today anti drug parents watch the evening news
Pharmaceutical companies begging them to choose
Between Prosac and Paxil to alter their thoughts
Next the Drug Czar is shouting -
Keep your kids off that pot

We've got cocaine in powder and cocaine in rocks
Hug drugs, hallucinogens, downers and pot
A drug free America is what we're not
We're world's leading jailer -
We're first in that slot

IT'S TIME FOR JUSTICE NOW

Lyrics by Nora Callahan

Is it time for justice now?
There's a prison near every town
A mother wails, and a wife falls to her knees
When the judge gives 30 years.

Is it time for freedom now?
Give schools these prison towns
Open up the gates, and renovate this land

Or is this some grander plan?
It's time to end this war
Stand up and tell 'em "No more!"
We've problems that are bigger than a bag of weed
Now the stuff's worth more than gold

Prohibition cannot work
When wages pay like dirt
We can't find jobs or build new schools
But we can pay a guard
More than the average slob

And nobody's kidding me
This war ain't about no weed
Or LSD, heroin, smack, crack or a little speed

And that leaves you and me
It's a war on everyone
A snitch's word can take your son
A mother wails, and a wife falls to her knees
When the judge give 30 years . . .

OUR OWN KIND

Lyrics by Nora Callahan

Across this land of America, prisons abound
Over 2 million citizens, in the bowels of hell
They're our own kind, been down a long time

Then went guards from US prisons, headed to Iraq
Unleashed on an unsuspecting people? No, they've expected us
A long time, a long time ago

Not in Bush's America, he didn't like it one bit
Nor did Haider al-Abbadi, to have his manhood
In his own kind, what was on his friend's mind?

Not in his America, his soldiers stripped them down.
Hoods on heads and limbs were bound, by our own kind
Our own kind. Our own kind

Just a few bad apples, fallen off the bush?
I wanna know how high is up, and that it's understood
It's his kind, and they're out of their minds

Guards and dogs and prisons; rape, torture, death
Happens every day in America, the leading jailer on Earth
It's our own kind, our own kind of design
Have we lost our minds? It's our own kind.