Colin Mutchler - Choose Responsiblity lyrics

Which histories have we taught ourselves Whose histories have we learned Which histories have we bought ourselves Whose histories have we burned And which histories do I know My time caught, earned as it goes I wonder how much of the mystery Will we uncover, are we told About the blisters of America As the frictions unfold It was the conquering of continents Millions were told You are ignorant, incompetent, inferior And then sold And I wonder How must they have felt How would we feel It was the story of a people forced off the land of their ancestry Who decides which side we teach in school And I wonder, how would our lives be different today If the native americans had been left to rule How much am I responsible Can I have helped things to change I am a citizen in this country What does that mean? And how much are you responsible Can you help things to change You are a citizen in this democracy But what does that mean? My great grandparents were immigrants Am I less to blame How would I think differently If my great grandparents had been slaves Why'd we k** Robert Kennedy, how could we k** Martin Luther King? Imagine John Lennon, k**ed for singing I ask, why so many dreamers had to die? Why so many dreamers had to die? Were they too much like Marx Did they love the poor Were we afraid of their hope of changing the world We were afraid of their hope of losing control And so we chose freedom, we chose fascist freedom Ruled as the pueblo cried Ruled as the people died We chose Banzer, we chose Pinochet And ruled as the pueblo cried We ruled as the pueblo died And now we choose, everyday we choose We choose hot s** on a glorified screen We choose dollars and cents, a for-profit TV And rule as our love subsides Rule as our neighbors try to survive How much am I responsible Can I help things to change I am a member of my community What does that mean And how much are you responsible Can you help things to change You are a member of this society But what does that mean? We are voters in this democracies, consumers in economies Members of families, represented in public policy And I wonder where is our power In this world of inequality What is our affect, what is our affect And should we choose responsibility? Should we choose responsibility?