Things are Bad

Things are Bad

I don’t have to tell you things are bad. 

Everybody knows things are bad.  There is a depression out there, yeah.  

Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. 

The dollar buys a penny’s worth.  Banks are taking our money and charging us outrageous service fees, yeah.
Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter.  Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it, right.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had some more homicides and numerous violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be, yeah.

We know things are bad – worse than bad.  It is crazy, right. 

It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore.  We sit in our house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: ‘Please, at least leave me alone in my living room.  Just leave us alone.’

Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone.  I want you to get MAD!  I don’t want you to protest.  I don’t want you to riot.  I don’t want you to write to your congressman.  

I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write to your  congressman. 

I don’t know what to do about the depression and the crime in the street. 

All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad. 

You’ve got to say: ‘I’m a human being, god-dammit! My life has value!’

So, I want you to get up now.  I want all of you to get up out of your chairs.  Open your window and stick your head out, and yell: ‘I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’

Things have got to change.  

But first, you’ve gotta get mad!…

You’ve got to say, ‘I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis.  But first, get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: ‘I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’

Thank you for reading,