You are not a Spectator

Intro

There's a screen in every window
And a window in every hand
We watch the whole world burning
Then we wonder where we stand

We learned the names of every stranger
We learned to count the dead
We learned to argue with a photograph
And sleep inside our beds

We know the latest breaking story
Before the sirens leave the street
But we don't know our neighbor's name
Or who's afraid to eat

We point at all the monsters
Like they're somewhere far away
But history is mostly ordinary people
Choosing what they do today

And someday when the screen goes dark
And there's nobody left to blame
You'll have to answer one small question:

What did you do
When you knew their name?

You are not a spectator
You are standing in the rain
You are not a number
You are somebody's chance to change

Don't wait for someone better
Don't wait until you're brave
The world is made of little choices
And this one is yours to make

You are not a spectator
You're here
You're here

Call your mother if you love her
Tell the lonely you can see
Put the phone down at the table
And let somebody disagree

Pick up what somebody dropped
Open up another door
Leave a little more behind you
Than you found upon the floor

If somebody's being hunted
Don't ask first if they're like you
If somebody's going under
Reach your hand into the blue

You don't have to fix the planet
You don't have to end the war
But you can make one little corner
Less cruel than it was before

Because history won't remember
Every thought you never said
It remembers what you practiced
When the comfortable life said:

Stay in bed

You are not a spectator
You are standing in the rain
You are not a number
You are somebody's chance to change

Don't wait for someone better
Don't wait until you're brave
The world is made of little choices
And this one is yours to make

You are not a spectator
You're here
You're here

Maybe you're tired.

I know.

Maybe you're angry.

Me too.

Maybe you think one person
Can't possibly matter.

That's the oldest lie
Power ever told the powerless.

Because every cruel world
Was built by ordinary people.

And every better one
Will be built the same way.

You are not a spectator
So get up and take your place
There's a human being beside you
Look them in the face

Don't wait for perfect answers
Don't wait for judgment day
The world is made of little choices
And this one is yours to make

Feed somebody who's hungry
Forgive somebody if you can
Stand beside somebody frightened
Put your shoulder to the land

You don't have to save tomorrow
You just have to choose today

You are not a spectator

You're here.

You're here.

Now do something with it.