Songtext The housewife terrorists Pete Seeger

The housewife terrorists

Come fifty-one percent of the population and listen to my song,
It's got but fifteen verses, It won't detain you long;
It's all a-bout four housewives - We took a little risk.
And how we got the title of the Housewife Terrorists

On a sunny day in the month of May in 1966
Right near the town of San Jose
We dressed in our best nylons, high heels and white gloves
And drove down to the shores of 'Frisco Bay.

There was Joyce and Aileen, Beverly and Lisa
We'd each made our decision on our own
We hand-painted the lines On our homemade picket signs
And arranged for baby sitters back at home.

When we entered the storage yard down on the bay
We saw the loading ramp and the bombs
Little did we know the consternation we'd be causing
For the folks who'd rather not discuss Napalm.

We saw a fork-lift truck bringing out a bomb load
Lisa walked over and spoke up to the man
Then she said I want you to stop what you are doing
And in front of his truck we all did stand.

"We came to stop murder," Joyce explained politely
He stopped his truck and stared in disbelief
And just as another operator mounted the machine
Along came Pat Chew, the local Chief.

Chief Chew went to his radio, he said "Send reinforcements"
There's four women here, you gotta help me out."
Loud whined the siren, two squad cars drove in
Chief Chew said, "Now ladies, you clear out."

Still we wouldn't move, the owner shouts "You're trespassing
Here's your last chance to leave of your free will"
We said "Please tell us which is the Most important law:
'Thou shalt not trespass' or 'Thou shall not kill'."

The owner said, Ladies, why don't you think of your children?"
"We are," says we, "and yours as well
And we're thinking of those children in far off Vietnam
For whom these bombs will make a burning hell."

They said, "Why don't you go through the legislative process?"
That's when our politeness very near gave way
"Why doesn't the President go through the legislative process?
If he did, this war could end today."

They must have given us 8 or 10 last chances
"Don't you realize that you do break the law?"
We said, ''Don't you realize what you yourself are doing?
It's you that commits the crime of war."

"You're under arrest" he said at last; "Each of us?" says we
Distinctly he said yes, and closed his eyes
We had held our ground for over one hour
And the Napalm barge had missed the tide.

Perhaps you read the papers, we got a suspended sentence
As long as we would obey the law
But we feel it's our government that's really breaking laws
And that's what we demonstrated for.

So when school starts again we may find ourselves
Taking some other little risk
And we hope that other women will shed their small fears
And join the Housewife Terrorists