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The Time to Act

from Strangers & Friends by David Rovics

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lyrics

The Time To Act (Song for Will Van Spronsen)

When it's 2019, but it feels like 1933
When your eyes are open, when you know the history
When your parents lived through things that looked so much like this
All the indications, impossible to miss
When you've sought for your whole life to make the Earth a better place
And you once again see the rising of the Master Race
When you know that they are coming, when they announced it in advance
When you know for many people, this will be their last chance

Then you may ask the question, what can one person do
When the time to act is now, and now it's up to you

When it's 2019, but it feels like 1933
When indefinite detention is the new reality
For so many children to whom you did not give birth
When you see they're just as precious
As every other child on Earth
When they're opening the camps, not used since the war
Where families were imprisoned decades before
When Kristallnacht is coming, they announced it on the news
When the writing's on the wall, when you can see the fuse

When it's 2019, but it feels like 1933
When you know rallies are not helping and silence is complicity
When you know where the kids are kept, locked inside their cells
When you see approaching the future this foretells
When they're coming for your neighbors, when they've even said what day
They plan to put them all in buses and take them away
When you know where they keep the buses, you've been to the parking lot
Perhaps a whole lot of petrol bombs is the best move you got

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from Strangers & Friends, released December 16, 2019

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David Rovics Portland, Oregon

Singer/songwriter, writer, podcaster (on Spotify, Substack & Patreon), anarchist, dad, lover of life.

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