Was Shel Silverstein just being crass br in the lyric sung by Johnny Cash - br or was he being amazingly, subversively, br unamericanly ironic? br The boy was not a boy, but a lot of men and women br their name not Sue but Sioux, br and ethnically cleansed by some of American Democracy's br many land-grabs and pogroms br carried out by racist rednecks br and Ulstermen with bombs.