Click the pen; cock the ink.
You say “Look at what we’ve become.”
I say “Look at what we’ve begun.”

You see despair and rebels, ruthless.
You see people oppressed and afraid.
You see a war in our future
Because we can’t change today.

My friend, I see Americans!
I see hope and strength.
I see the Stonewall rioters
Who challenged the laws, the rules, the judges
To make the system fair.

Take away my pen, I dare you. Take away my rights.

Are you scared that we’ll break
The system that we make?
We bend the rules we bent before?

Deplore! You small-minded wench!
We did not rise from soap.
America is not complacency,
Nor lazy gossips, mopes.

We fought the British government:
The king and our imprisonment.
We took no shit, we took our shots,
We bandaged wounds with their cravats!

America is freedom, I tell you! Our people came from justice.

We are America! Not some buildings white.
Not laws nor rules nor judges’ seats.
We came from tears and blood and fights.

This is a battle to be won; this is years of work.
Will you stand up for America? Or will you leave it there?
Will you submit to laws and rules that just aren’t nice or fair?

Will you be bound by the government?
Will you enslave yourself to fear
That you’re a rebel, ruthless if you
Pick up a pen?

Pick up a pen, my friend. Are you prepared to fight for America
If we don’t change the laws that trap us and keep us from the truth?

Pick up a pen, my friend. Let us start today.
Let us change the system
Before the system changes you.