Not For Want Of Trying

Everybody knows things are bad
It's a depression
Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job
The dollar buys a nickel's worth
Banks are going bust
Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter
Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere that seems to know what to do
And there's no end to it!

We know the air is unfit to breathe
Our food is unfit to eat
And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes
As if that's the way it's supposed to be
We know things are bad, qorse than bad, they're crazy
It's like everything everywhere is going crazy so we don't go out anymore
We sit in a house as slowly the world we're 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 won't say anything
Well I'm not going to 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
Because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write
I don't know what to do about the depression
And the inflation and the Russians and the crimes in the streets

All I know is 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
I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it
And stick your head out, and yell: I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!