The History of Burning Drafts

Title

The History of Burning Drafts

Uploaded on June 9, 2019(Original ver.) / August 31, 2019(Minor Key ver.) Views: 740,648 (Original ver.) / 142,152 (Minor Key ver.)

Singer

Eleanor Forte

Producer(s)

StardustLegend

Link(s)

Original ver.、Minor Key ver.

Introduction

The History of Burning Drafts is an original English song by Eleanor Forte, a voice database of the Synthesizer V engine. It was uploaded to YouTube on June 9, 2019 by StardustLegend, who uploaded the minor key version on August 31, 2019. Both versions of the song have more than one hundred thousand views on YouTube.

The song was made for the producer's school history project. It briefly explains two legal controversies surrounding the burning of draft cards during the Vietnam War.

Lyrics

The copyright of the lyrics in this paragraph belongs to the original copyright owner. It is quoted for the purpose of introduction only.

In 1968 the U.S. court needed to rule,
On whether or not, the burning of drafts should be ridiculed.
Cause at the time the war on Vietnam was raging on.
And very few had wanted to be forced to raise a gun.
But why is this, and what is that? And why would they not support?
To answer this, let's take it back by looking at history!

The war on Vietnam was on because of one purpose:
To prevent the rise, and spread, and integration of communists.
The South itself had allied with the U.S. government,
And the North in turn had allied with the Chinese regiment.
So what happened, and what went wrong? And why did they all protest?
Let's continue on, and we'll find out, what made them want to detest!

Well at the time, the U.S. decided to implement,
The U.S. draft which mandated the service of citizens.
All men of 18 years to 25 had to apply.
And 1/3 of the men in war where forced there to comply.
And in 1965 the U.S. had attack North Vietnam,
And U.S. planes, where flying overhead and dropping bombs.
Critics had started questioning the government's methods.
Of claiming they were liberating and fighting for ethics.
So people think, and they question, and wonder what to do.
And some decide, that they won't fight a war they don't want to!

In 1965 the destruction of drafts became a way,
To protest and avoid the war taking place far away.
While not the first, and not the last, David Miller had went,
And publicly burned his draft card, on the cold hard concrete steps.
They took him in, and sentenced him, to prison for 30 months.
A pacifist, a catholic arrested for his protest!

The court had ruled that burning drafts was not proper plight.
Protected by the first amendment of the bill of rights.
But this would not be the last time we hear about this regard.
In 3 years the U.S. court will have to argue about these cards.
David O'Brien was a huge protestor of the war,
And he had burned his card and smeared it on the Boston Courthouse char.
He said he was exercising his first amendment right,
So is the law against burning draft cards against his fight?
The argued and they debated for days and months on end.
But ultimately they decided to convict him then.

Explaining their decision Chief Justice Warren had this to say.
That the conduct of burning drafts was not free speech on face.
The case was 7 to 1, majority saying that they need.
A test to see whether or not a protest act is valid.
They determined that if the government's own interests,
Where within constitutional power should not resist.
The interest of Drafts itself were unrelated to,
The freedom or suppression of the first amendment dues.
How sad for those who live in the poor and the middle class,
For that means they cannot avoid the unfair wartime draft.

So that's the burning of draft cards in the U.S. back then,
I hope you all learned something valuable from my lesson.