white people are so scared of black people   they bulldoze out to the country   and put up houses on little loop-dee-loop streets   and while america gets its heart cut right out of its chest   the berlin wall still runs down main street   separating east side from west   and nothing is stirring, not even a mouse   in the boarded-up stores and the broken-down houses   so they hang colorful banners off all the street lamps   just to prove they got no manners   no mercy and no sense      and i'm wondering what it will take   for my city to rise   first we admit our mistakes   then we open our eyes   the ghosts of old buildings are haunting parking lots   in the city of good neighbors that history forgot      i remember the first time i saw someone   lying on the cold street   i thought: i can't just walk past here   this can't just be true   but i learned by example   to just keep moving my feet   it's amazing the things that we all learn to do      so we're led by denial like lambs to the slaughter   serving empires of style and carbonated sugar water   and the old farm road's a four-lane that leads to the mall   and our dreams are all guillotines waiting to fall      i'm wondering what it will take   for my country to rise   first we admit our mistakes   and then we open our eyes   or nature succumbs to one last dumb decision   and america the beautiful   is just one big subdivision