What would YOU do?

In a dream I see leaders at interview sessions
answering questions about hope and oppression
revealing the truth that know one wants to hear
about ruling the people who still live in fear

First of all how do you satisfy folks?
Is it money and hope and a good set of jokes?
I had asked someone recently, " what would you do
If the fate of this country was left up to you? "

I have seen from a stage what is there to be seen
when a crowd comes together as one great machine
it takes more than intention and sincerity
to keep minds satisfied with the greatest of ease

You can sit there and say what you think would be best
with your college degrees and your reprinted tests
but no matter what book you pull down from the shelf
a crowd will reflect what you think of yourself

So now in this dream all these leaders I see
are the same audience who would listen to me
if I was on stage with the mic in one hand
and a heart full of hope for the kids of this land

But the truth can't be reached, it just grows like a tree
and the fruit that it bears won't set everyone free
and in time we mature like an oak in the ground
goin' nuts in a world that keeps spinning around

So leaders that rule with a great money plan
might be missing the logic that children demand
in a world we've created for rich human beings
who are trapped like their fingers by huge diamond rings

Yes we only live once, so do all that you know
your freedom to think is your freedom to grow
leaders wage war to gain money and land
for the freedom they want but still don't understand

If I was in charge, yeah, I wouldn't change nothin'
I 'd wait until everyone finally said somethin'
and then I'd roll tape of this lands history
and I'd edit some things and then legalize weed

I would hire a speaker to say what I've written
I'd settle down slow like a cat from a kitten
I 'd try to seek out some democracy
in a world that sees us as the great ugly beast

There'd be phones made of chocolate for women in need
there be less alcohol and twice as much weed
the age to start drinking would be at 16
so you'd know how to drink when you're grown up ya see

No matter what changes, all people complain
the fact we all do this is kind of insane
but we do and the alcohol magnifies this
I don't drink and this poem has balled up its fist

Oh the leaders are people who WANT to have power
they do and they must spend a lot of their hours
thinking of how to control everything
that's one hell of a job if you stop now and think

and because they are people with children and values
they must have a plan that will work ,man ,I tell you
a plan held in check by the power we give them
or they wouldn't have any white houses to live in...

U.s.