Children Aren't the Enemy - modified 10/30/2018

I hope to record this some day, when I have the money.

Children Aren't the Enemy
copyright 2000 Patricia M. Shannon

(chorus)
What kind of country do we live in
where children are the enemy,
except when they are just reflections of their parents,
or targets of the ads on MTV?

When adults treat their children with unkindness,
we say that they are not to blame;
they'r only doing what they've learned from their own parents,
how can we expect them to know a better way?

But when children have been tortured by their parents
for years and years, until they finally break,
we say, "For shame, there's no excuse, ever;
why didn't they figure out a better way?"

(chorus)

Forgive your parents the beatings and the harsh words
that made your childhood years a misery;
displace your anger on your children and employees,
and those not in your own identities.

Children today start out the same as we did,
genetically there hasn't been a change;
if we'd been brought up in the same world that they live in,
for sure we would have turned out just the same.

(chorus)