ScienceFictionpage11.html
"Education (You're Expanding My Vocabulary)"
It's such a complex world we live in
Little account's given for what each of us knows.
Before we're born, some say we have rights--or it's a sin
At least until each of us grows.
Education--that's this week's word
The President's expanding my vocabulary.
I don't know that I understand what I heard
'Cause there's no guarantee, in these deregulation times
It's going to keep me away from the constabulary.
Lessons taught, lessons learned
I can't figure out what they should mean to me.
It seems so little affects what I've earned
And means less still compared to what's seen by me.
Reading taught me what's on TV tonight
And how the markets got a different view on people's lives.
But when I tune to TV, the reading don't seem so right
Liars and cheats seem to be the good guys in white
And those Arabs are still the only ones with more wives.
That's the 'rithmatic, of course
Of which I am so proud
Education taught me for so long it's still in force.
I can still figure it out loud
Even 'fore I take off my shoes to count
When the figuring gets into those budget deficit amounts.
Geography's a stranger art
'Cause what they taught us kids in days gone by is now passe.
It's like they put the horse behind the cart
I'm so confused I don't know where I am, where I come from
Tougher figurin' than a one and one sum
Only good for early morning to end of day.
This sure confuses my sense of history
And what they taught me 'bout what we were.
I tug on my fingers to see if they stay there (I'm not so
sure)
It's like if I don't, who I am will stay a mystery.
I think, so I am (Descartes has said)
So I think I see it now:
We're different people on the street than when in bed
And that's about the only way to understand how.
I eat crackers in bed and watch TV
I learned this on a street corner, not in school.
That's the place I leave my garbage, I still can see
Once a week--it's my guiding rule.*
-TO CONSIDER WHAT I TOLD FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA JOHN TURNER IS ACTUALLY "(ONE OF) MY GUIDING RULE(S)," TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.
IT'S ABOUT HALF-WAY DOWN THE PAGE.
TAKE YOUR NEXT FOOTSTEP
HERE.