What’s wrong with the world today? Things just got to get better / Sho’ ain’t what the leaders say? Maybe we should write a letter

Dear Mr. Man, we don’t understand / Why poor people keep struggling, but you don’t lend a helping hand

Matthew 5:5 says the meek shall inherit the earth / We wanna be down that way, but you been tripping since the day of you’re birth

Who said that to kill is a sin / Then started every single war that you’re people been in?

Who said that water is a precious commodity / Then dropped a big old black oil slick in the deep blue sea?

Who told me, Mr. Man / That working round the clock would buy me a big house in the ’hood with cigarette ads on every block?

Who told, me Mr. Man / That I got a right to moan? How ’bout this big ol’ hole in the ozone?

What’s wrong with the world today? Things just got to get better / Dear Mr. Man, we don’t understand / Maybe we should write a letter, so long

Ain’t no sense in voting, same song with a different name / Might not be in the back of the bus, but it sho’ feel just the same

Ain’t nothin’ fair about welfare / Ain’t no assistance in Aids / Ain’t nothing affirmative about you’re actions till the people get paid

You’re thousand years are up, now you got to share the land / Section one, the 14th amendment says no State shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law”

Mr. Man, we want to end this letter with a couple of words / “We tired you all!”

Dear Mr. Man

[By Prince Rogers Nelson © Npg / Columbia, 2004]