'Tis of Thee Lyrics

Lyric discussion by lalalalala1392 

Cover art for 'Tis of Thee lyrics by Ani DiFranco

i think it's interesting how she shifts in this song. like: "the old dogs they got a new trick it's called criminalize the symptoms while you spread the disease" which clearly speaks about legislation and government. and fear.then she sings about her response to this subliminal injustice: "i hold on hard to something between my teeth when i'm sleeping and i wake up and my jaw aches" and then this: and the earth is full of earthquakes."what does that mean?she wakes up to destruction?waves of destruction?

why is the poor man wearing a red cape? like little red ridding hood? i thought that was some reference to woman hood. perhaps innocence? in any case the point of that story is that she looses it. who has lost the innocence? the listener? the poor man? the accuser[s]?

The poor man is a junkie on a poor man's vacation

He feel like superman in his shiny red cape but even that is denied to him because the authorities want to clean up the town.

@lalalalala1392 I think she's not speaking to little red riding hood, lost innocence, or the poor man. I see the man in the read cape as a literal reference to superman. that this is becoming a country that even he wouldn't recognize. that the ideals that we hold up and say we value and cherish, the ideals superman is also supposed to stand for, its all lip service.

And just as the targeting and marginalization of the poor, the racism, the institutional structures in place to keep that system going... there is no place for the poor man. No real...