We built this

We built this here.
The fathers of our fathers can testify
It wasn’t over centuries, merely decades, we built it over years.

The foundation laid was long ago
But our decadence has made it so.
We built this here.

This; all debauchery and greed,
Instilled, yes, ages, long ago,
But we made it so.

We built this here.
Our grandfathers can testify;
Because what they saw with their own eyes as just babes was happening long ago
What they saw they cannot show.
They cannot point
Because we built this here.

The politics will hide it, and our history will deny it
Our lecturers will frown
And mentors bring it down
But the fact remains,
We made it so
What’s pertained as justice now was justice long ago.

There’s no moral high ground to make ours low,
But what we see is clearly so...
Not how it’s supposed to be.

We built this here, and all that holds our tongues is strangled fear.
Every infant child is an outstretched arm,
Every poverty’s a muffled cry;

These, all cues for us to do some good,
For those unfortunate, misunderstood.
And reminders that we are what’s wrong,
Though perilous, we choose where to carry on;
We can build our world how we like,
As long as we own up and know what’s right.

As long as we know someone’s listening we can pick a fight.
As long as something’s wrong, we’re challenged to abandon fright.
As to live for naught is to die a babe; and to run away from what you made,
That’s the true precipice of cowardice.
We built this here.

We can rise and fix it well,
For the youths a generation you cannot tell;
Or we can be baby boom that lived on the efforts of those oppressed,
Like feeding off a mother’s breast.