I've gotta sink full of dishes to do, but I won't do them today
I've got rent coming due, I ain't got money to pay
A bad summer ahead, I think that I'll stay
Letters I have to write but I don't know what to say
I got things I think I would steal if I wasn't afraid
And things I should do, but let's just smoke in the shade
Jobs that I ought to find, but there's no freedom in trade
Businessmen I'll forgive for the money they've made
Because if I spend all my time being mad about
All the things that there are to be mad about, then
When will we have the time to take the bastards down?
I'm walking downtown to sleep in a park
Because the cops all say we can't sleep in a park and
I don't know if this is stupid, but I'm gonna find out
Some liberals will hate our guts because we walk in the street
And some will hate us because they love the police
Because they know no ballot is gonna represent me
If that's the point of all this then don't count on me
Because if I spend all my time being mad about
All the things that there are to be mad about, then
When will we have the time to take the bastards down?
What I hear about Oakland has got me thinking that
Maybe I have been too much of a cynic and
I don't know if this is stupid, but I'm gonna find out
♪
(A big part of any, having a relationship with my mother
Has been learning to spend less energy
Trying to communicate with her in a way
That would result in her being an ally
Like a political ally
She has posters in her basement of like
Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.
She thinks of herself as a really progressive kind of person
Yet, when we talk about prison, and when we talk about poverty
She is not willing to uh, acknowledge systemic racism
We were talking about prison profiteering
And she was of the opinion that um
People who end up in prison thats like totally out of their own fault
And just trying to bring new light to er
Coercion of people being used for profit
She was getting really frustrated
Because she was getting really defensive
And finally busted out and said
"Well, black people should just stop selling heroin and get a job!"
For all the things that, you know
All the times that I have tried to really patient with my mom
This was like a moment where I just
Realized that I had to call out my mom
Like I would call out somebody else
Ever since that visit my mom and I have found
Some moments when we should say
"Ok, lets not talk about this"