American Reckoning

America's on fire

There's protests in the street

Her conscience has been looted

And her soul is under siege

Another mother's cryin'

As history repeats

I can't breathe

Goddamn those eight long minutes

Lying face-down in cuffs on the ground

Bystanders pleaded for mercy

As one cop shoved a kid in the crowd

When did a judge and a jury

Become a badge and a knee

On these streets?

Stay alive, stay alive

Shine a light, stay alive

Use your voice and you remember me

American reckoning

I'll never know what it's like

To walk a mile in his shoes

And I'll never have to have the talk

So it don't happen to you

Three little words written 'cross the chest

Of a twelve-year-old who hasn't lived life yet

Am I next?

Am I next?

Stay alive, stay alive

Shine a light, stay alive

Use your voice and you remember me

American reckoning

Is this a moment or movement?

Is this the tide or a flood?

Is our American reckoning

Our story written in blood?

Or in love?

Or in peace?

Stay alive, stay alive

Shine a light, stay alive

Use your voice and you remember me

Stay alive, stay alive

Shine a light, stay alive

Use your voice and you remember me

American reckoning

In our American reckoning