AMERICAN INSANITY
Every day in the comment section
There’s talk about insurrection
Calling names at our own reflections
Exploiting our imperfections
An online viral infection
Where truth can’t pass lie detection
Happens every single election
It’s a crossroads not an Intersection
Each side is so partisan
Not open to our fellow man
Always ready to open a can
Thinking each of us is better than
All over this apathetic land
Who really has the right to ban
Books, ideas gays or trans
Sinking us into quicksand
CHORUS: It’s Insanity… oh all around me
Hyperbole… Qanon conspiracy
Instability…..oh say can’t you see.
It’s insanity… from sea to shining sea
Let’s talk about the right to choose
What every woman could lose
From red-state courtroom abuse
Holier than thou point of views
A dynamite stick with a lit fuse
A handmaid’s tale vacation cruise
Going backwards we must refuse
Come on there’s no excuse
It’s a constitutional crisis
Congress running round like 3 blind mices
Talking bout where Jesus Christ is
Acting oh so righteous
Made of gold like King Midas
Scarier than Taliban or isis
Contagious as meningitis
It’s all gonna come back to bite us
CHORUS: It’s insanity. Oh all around me
Idiocracy…a dictator wanna be
Lies and deceit…oh say can’t you see
It’s Insanity. from sea to shining sea
BREAK: Dark clouds above forming
That was our capital they were storming
Oh It was more than a warning
What will be left standing in the morning?
Now we got to separate
All the church from the state
All the love from the hate
When there’s crime investigate
Stop all the click bait
Meant to eviscerate
Contaminate, manipulate
Take a stand, vote, demonstrate
CHORUS: Its Insanity. oh all around me
no civility .. just criminal proclivity
rewriting history…..oh say can’t you see
it’s Insanity American insanity… Tucker, Trump and Hannity…
no integrity…a future catastrophe…a damn calamity…
use some profanity…cause it’s insanity from sea to shining sea
IMMIGRATION NATION
scraps on the table so the little ones are fed
Wait on a corner in winter colds bite
Hoping for work and that we make it home tonight
Dangerous conditions. 100 mile bus rides.
Work still gets done even done with pride
Labor in shadows keeping our head down
Making two dollars a day in this All-American town
CHORUS Immigration built this nation
For those who dared to dream
Intoleration will tear it down
Rip it apart at the seams
Today ICE agents ate at Rose’s café
walked in the kitchen and took the cook away
Done nothing wrong …still has no rights
Some days we wonder if it’s really worth the fight
Nothing to share in this bountiful land
Grown with the dirt ground deep into our hands
Standing on both sides with a bird’s eye view
the little hope that was in our hearts…that’s gone too
CHORUS
BREAK: Picking your crops…cleaning your table tops
Washing your floors….even fighting your wars
Collecting trash….under the table cash
Watching your kids….like our mothers did
CHORUS
It’s 4am and we’re rolling out of bed
scraps on the table so the little ones are fed
Wait on a corner in winter colds bite
Hoping for work and that we make it home tonight
SOMEBODY'S HOME
It arrived today with a smiling face
from somewhere close yet far away
over 6 feet tall on my front porch steps
delivered in 24 hours or less
my kids don’t really care what came inside it
they pretend its a bus maybe even ride it
I could recycle… to help mother earth
instead probably kick it out there by the curb
CHORUS: My Amazon box somewhat oversized
that Amazon box I just realized
before the garbage man came … it was gone
my Amazon box is about to be somebody’s home
corrugated cities with very little shelter
duct taped together all helter skelter
once filled with mattresses and big screen TVs
now packed under overpasses as far as you can see
CHORUS: Oh Amazon boxes, inside is a surprise
Yeah Amazon boxes in every shape and size
Portland to Detroit to San Antoine
those Amazon boxes have become somebody’s home
BREAK: a refrigerator box can seem heaven sent
when you can’t afford to pay your rent
address unknown …torn off tracking code
bubble wrap pillow…milk jug commode
they take no comfort cause they have no means
living in the home of nobody’s dreams
CHORUS: Oh Amazon boxes from every prime account
yeah Amazon boxes they mount and mount
from trucks and planes, even a drone
those Amazon boxes now they’re somebody’s home
those Amazon boxes just knock, chances are
…somebody’s home
WWTFS (WHAT WOULD THE FLAG SAY)
High atop of buildings I have soared
Watched over every shore.
I stood tall. Welcomed all.
Draped fallen heroes home from war
I could bring crowds to their feet
Waving to old glory’s drumbeat
Hands on hearts. Threadbare, torn apart
Like our democracy
CHORUS I am frayed around the edges
faded blues and blood reds
My stripes and stars. Stained and marred.
I don’t remember how I fell this far.
Not the perfect union I admit.
All the sins both sides commit…
Truth benders. Patriots and pretenders
Hope to god I’ve seen the worst of it
CHORUS I am frayed around the edges
Faded blues and blood reds
Divided as we are, with all our battle scars
I don’t remember how I fell this far
BR: From the shores of Tripoli to the surface of the moon
Carry on, carry on.
Those yearning to be free. What so many fought to be,
from sea to almost shining sea…
Wherever I am raised to fly
Do my part guard and guide
Unyielding to the last. Even at half mast
Night or day standing by
CHORUS I’m still frayed around the edges
Faded blues and blood reds
Surround my fifty stars and this land of ours
Don’t ever let me fall again this far
Don’t ever let me fall again this far
Don’t ever let me fall again this far
WISHING WELL
From the bottom of the wishing well.
I wish that i could wish you well.
From the burning fires here in hell
I’m looking for a truth to tell
CHORUS: I say…do some good. Do no harm
Don’t give in to the twisting arm
Because these are troubled times
these lives of yours and mine
so seek the proof in the face of all the untruth
in the face of all the untruth
All those well-heeled hands that rob us blind
And their souls so dark and void of light
From the steeples of the righteous right
driving nails deep into the night
CHORUS: Stand alone. Stand apart.
Take a deep look into your heart
Because these are troubled times
these lives of yours and mine
so seek the proof in the face of all the untruth
in the face of all the untruth
(continued on the next page)
BREAK: It’s hard not to be cynical
about the world around us today
we must protect our words and our right to say them
before our freedoms slip away....
Don’t leave a single stone unturned.
Because these are troubled times
these lives of your and mine
so seek the proof in the face of all the untruth
in the face of all the untruth
in the face of all sides we choose.
in the face of all the fake news
in the face of all we might lose
in the face of all the untruth
in the face of all the untruth
THE STREAM
There’s a stream running through this land of ours
A stream that flows blood red
The banks are lined with all the lives
All the truth and all the lies
And all the things that we wish we had said
I can hear at least a hundred million voices
As I travel on where life once belonged
Voices echoing honesty trampled under by society
They’d rather bury what’s right than change what’s wrong
And what you give today and what you take today
Can make a difference for tomorrow
We must try today before we die someday
To make something for tomorrow
From California to the New York shores
From Nicaragua to the bloody Mid East wars
Every day the names and faces change
The more they change the more they stay the same
And the stream keeps rising til it reaches your door
And what we do today and what we don’t today
Can make a difference if we try
Not so long ago and not so far away
I was taught to keep asking why
There’s a stream running through this land of ours
A stream that flows blood red
The banks are lined with all the lives
All the truth and all the lies
And all the things that we wish we had said