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Holiday Songbook

See lyrics, and pdf download links for individual songs below, or download entire songbook in one pdf.

12 Days of Christmas

(Lauren Steiner, So. Cal. Bernie Sanders organizer), Leslie Hassberg, Nancy Schimmel, Betsy Rose, all of Occupella) 
Download PDF (created 12/10/19)

On the first day of Christmas the people shall decree: 
An end to inequality. 
Second - $15 bucks an hour 
Third - free public college
Fourth - wind and solar power 
Fifth - health care for all 
Sixth - infrastructure spending
Seventh - equal pay for women
Eighth – Wall Street regulation  
  Ninth – safety net expansion 
Tenth – shutting private prisons
Eleventh – caring for our veterans 
Twelfth – no more gerrymanders 
Tag #1 -- and an end to white supremacy!
Tag #2 – and an end to grabbing pussy!

Solar Carol

(Many hands created this over a long period of time. This version edited by Leslie Hassberg of Occupella PDX)
Download PDF (created 12/10/19)

See the sun, how bright it shines on the nations of the earth;
All who share this thing called life celebrate each day’s rebirth.

Chorus:
So-o-o-o-lar power, inexpensive energy (2x).

Join the sun in jubilee, celebrate each day’s rebirth.
Solar panels, rooftop high warm our homes, but not the earth.

Sister wind, we’ve heard on high, sweetly singing o’er the plain;
And the windmills in reply, echo back their glad refrain.

Climate change is here and now, stop the drilling, stop the trains!
So our children’s children will enjoy a healthy earth again.

God Rest You Merry Gentlemen

(Christopher Hershey of The Fallen Angels and Leslie Hassberg of The Choral Majority)
Download PDF (created 12/10/19)

God rest you, merry Susan Jones, with two kids, five and three,
The funds were cut for childcare, housing, and food subsidies,
To save us from the welfare state but not from poverty.

Chorus: 
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy (2x), Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.

God rest you, merry Joseph Brown and bless the cell you’re in,
Some white cops had a problem with the color of your skin,
So you were beat and you were framed, it’s Christmas in the pen.

Chorus

God rest you, merry Jack Renée, retired and ignored,
Inflation is a luxury your pension can’t afford,
No Christmas spirit is included in your room and board.
Chorus
God rest you, merry Anna Lee, alone as Christmas nears,
You haven’t seen your family in over seven years,
For peace on earth, goodwill towards men just isn’t meant for queers.
Chorus
The military spends more than a trillion for defense,
But what defends our human needs from state indifference?
’ Long as the rich and corporations live at our expense,

Final Chorus:
Tell me, where is the comfort and joy, comfort and joy?
Tell me, where is the comfort and joy? !

Wondrin’ Where the Winter Weather Went

(Felix Bernard, Jack Lucero Fleck of 350 Bay Area)
Download PDF (created 12/10/19)

Intro
Up in the air, we’ve pumped CO2

And we didn’t care, just what it would do Now everyone’s hopin’, ‘cause we’re all copin’ Together.
It’s a new season; it’s a new clime.
Glaciers are melting, all of the time
And oil keeps spillin’; the earth needs more chill in The weather.

O – ceans rise, droughts are drier,
Stormy skies, floods are higher,
Somethin’s not right, we’re puzzled tonight,
Wondrin’ where the winter weather went. (music says “ever went”)

Gone away are the cold days,
They don’t stay as in old days,
The weather’s all wrong as we sing our song,
Wondrin’ where the winter weather went.

Bridge 1
In the papers they say you’ll have no job
If we do not keep on burning oil,
We say, “Don’t believe them, it’s a snow job,”
We can use the sun and wind and still not boil!”

Corporations conspire,
Just to make profits higher,
They should be afraid of the mess that they’ve made
Wondrin’ where the winter weather went.

In the Congress they have put deniers,
People who think that the earth is flat,
They say, “Scientists are simply liars,”
And “Burning fossils fuels is where it’s at.”

Bridge 2
In the Gulf they keep drillin’
Though the oil keeps on spillin’
The wars linger on, we wake up each dawn
Wondrin’ where the winter weather went.
Wondrin’ where the winter weather went.

Climate Change is Coming to Town

(J. Fred Coots, lyric source unknown)
Download lyrics PDF (created 12/10/19)

You better not frack, you better not try,
That’s the wrong track, we’re telling you why, (music say’s “I’m)
Climate change is coming to town.

We’re making a list and checking it twice,
Don’t make us pissed, ‘cause then we’re not nice,
Climate change is coming to town.

We know when you are fracking, polluting every lake
We know that you’ve been bad, not good,
Cut it out, for goodness sake!

Oh, you better not frack, you better not try,
That’s the wrong track, you’ll make us all die,
Climate change is coming to town.