Dear Mr President I sat me down
To send you greetings from my home town
And send you best wishes from all the friends I know
In Texas Alabama and Ohio and unaffiliated
I'm an ordinary guy worked most of my life
Sometime I'll settle down with my kids and wife
And I like to see a movie or take a little drink
And I like being free to say what I think
Sorta runs in the family
My grandpa crossed the ocean for the same reason
Now I hate Hitler and I can tell you why
He's caused lots of good folks to suffer and die
He's got a way of shovin' folks around
I figger it's about time we slapped him down
Give him a dose of his own medicine Lead poison
Now Mr President
We haven't always agreed in the past I know
But that ain't at all important now
What is important is what we got to do
We got to lick Mr Hitler and until we do
Other things can wait
In other words first we've got a skunk to skin
War means overtime and higher prices
But we're all willing to make sacrifices
Hell I'd even stop fightin' with my mother-in-law
Cause we need her too to win the war ol' battle-axe
Now as I think of our great land
With its cities and towns and farming land
With its so many good people a-working every day
I know it ain't perfect but it will be someday
Just give us a little time
This is the reason that I want to fight
Not 'cause everything's perfect or everything's right
No it's just the opposite: I'm fightin' because
I want a better America and better laws
And better homes and jobs and schools
And no more Jim Crow and no more rules like
"You can't ride on this train 'cause you're a Negro "
"You can't live here 'cause you're a Jew "
"You can't work here 'cause you're a union man "
There's a line keeps runnin' through my head
I think it was somethin' Joe Louis once said
Said "There's a lot of things wrong
But Hitler won't help 'em "
Now Mr President
You're commander-in-chief of our armed forces
The ships and the planes and the tanks and the horses
I guess you know best just where I can fight
All I want to be is situated right
To do the most damage
I never was one to try and shirk
And let the other fellow do all of the work
So when the time comes I'll be on hand
And I can make good use of these two hands
Quit playing this banjo around with the boys
And exchange it for something that makes more noise
So Mr President
We got this one big job to do
That's lick Mr Hitler and when we're through
Let no one else ever take his place
To trample down the human race
So what I want is you to give me a gun
So we can hurry up and get the job done