America For Dummies

Shut up you finger pointing bastards
who try to to teach us who we are
and how stupid we are to be who we are
We know ourselves pretty well
This is the USA after all
A whole culture based in constant apology
“Sorry we don’t live up to what we claim to be”
It’s the most human thing we are
except that we work it harder than most
and don’t buy that it can’t be different

You think of us
as unaware of our dangerous contradictions
How we’ve got love for the kiss of gangsta hand
And sleep uneasy thinking of it against our cheeks
We’ve got mad love for the wrong side of town
Uneasily planted within a quick stroll to safety
We’re uneasy with our loves
We just want to live without thinking sometimes
We’re big block dummies who love a straight road
and rowdy pipes in full cry
from underneath the ride and out of its crank windows
Black exhaust we leave behind its own explanation
Dumb pop reveling and refusing to explain
Cock rock blaring and explaining
Country music simplifying and explaining
Hip hop flashing gold and guns to explain
and Las Vegas winning for the best explanation of all

You finger pointing bastards
You agenda manacled studs of opinion
You scolds and scourges and professional sobbing consciences
You don’t understand us at all
From the left we’ve got smug
From the right we’ve got stern
We’re in the middle with the TV on
Plugged up ears and screwed up muddled hearts
Do you think we don’t know how screwed we are

We’re doing the best we can do right now
With this chatter and smoke obscuring the exits
The chains have been set on the doors
We’ve still got the windows high in the walls to entice us
into believing the sun is still out there
though that light might just be
another fire

Give us some credit

We know the powerful hold on to power
because that’s what we would do
We know the money makes life easier
because we don’t have enough ourselves
We know the earth is dying from a case of us
because we live here and can hear it cough
We know that wealth can be either poison or manna
because we plan to be rich one day and choose

Right now we’ve got sick hearts
sick kids sick houses and cars
Not enough work and we’re numb from it
The wrong kind of work and we’re dumb from it
Give us liberty or give us convenience
Either way we’ll likely be here still
Give us social degradation or give us peace
We’ll likely be here still
Our moral fiber’s just fine
if it makes us ferocious in looking for the exit
and if you point left to the one you think we should take
or if you point right to the one you think we should take
we know in our guts that the only way out
is to break the wall down that holds both your doors
and we’re scared for the kids
the house
the car
who will be standing there when it goes

If we find a way out
it won’t be easy
and the only thing we can hope for
is that you’ll shut up once we’re out of here