Everybody knows things are bad.
The dollar buys a nickels worth…
Banks are going bust
Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter,
Punks are running wild in the street,
But theres nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do,
And theres no end to it.
We know
The air is unfit to breathe
And our food is unfit to eat.
We sit watching our TVs
While some local newscaster tells us
That today we had fifteen homicides
And sixty-three violent crimes,
As if thats the way its supposed to be!
We all know things are bad
Worse than bad
They`re crazy.
Its like everything everywhere is going crazy,
So we dont go out any more.
We sit in the house,
And slowly the world were living in is getting smaller,
And all we say is, Please,
At least leave us alone in our living rooms.
Let me have my toaster and my TV
And my steel-belted radials,
And I wont say anything.
Just leave us alone.
Well, Im not going to leave you alone.
I want you to get mad!
I dont want you to protest.
I dont want you to riot.
I dont want you to write to your Congressman,
because I wouldnt know what to tell you to write.
All I know is that first,
You`ve got to get mad.
You`ve gotta say,
I`m a human being,
GOD DAMN IT ! My life has value!”
