The Groovement

Yesterday's hippie movement was bought off
Today gluttonous pigs, gorge at the trough
Yesterday's Civil Rights advocate
Today, the elite in government cabinet

Yesterday screaming against military spending, tough laws and punishment           

Today Nazi sympathizers working in an opaque government

"Call out the instigators
Because there's something in the air
We've got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution's here, 

And you know that it's rights"
Thunderclap Newman

Yesterday's rebellious movement launcher
Today silly advertising by a multi-corporate sponsor
Yesterday Baby Boomers bowed, scraped and cowered
Today the administration has greater, unfettered powers

"What we got to say
Power to the people no delay
To make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be"

Public Enemy

Yesterday artists wrote, protest injustice rap                      
Today mainstream rap, is unadulterated corporate crap
Yesterday's liberation freedom fighter
Today's, "bask in the afterglow" delighter

Yesterday was the grassroots political movement
Today we found out, what get in the groove meant
Yesterday was sit-ins and draft dodgers crossed boarders                    

Today we get in the groove of the emancipated social order
Yesterday was bloodlines, aristocracy and monarchy
Today we strive to adhere to social and environmental equality








Today's youth "standing on the shoulders of giants"
Yesterday's heroes showed establishment defiance
Today's youth see where greed is taking us
Yesterday's neo-liberalism totally defeated us
Today we strive to seek our own and each other's counsel
Yesterday's indoctrination, was imposed by the political scoundrel








Yesterday was reduced people spending, deregulation, free trade and liberalized markets
Today we want liberalization and investment for underprivileged human and social targets



"Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
Step out of line, the men come and take you away"
Buffalo Springfield 

Yesterday fought to liberate, everyday, common people                            

Today, gave way to fears, of government sanctioned evil 

Yesterday understood, you had to fight to be free in every way

Today, silence led to violence and global and social decay

"Don't push me cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under"

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five





Yesterday took for granted what white privilege meant
Today blacks and indigenous ask, where the anti-segregation went?
Yesterday segregation meant, being separated by race
Today Jewish, Eastern European, Italian and Irish pass as a white face
Yesterday never considered, the enslaved, scattered or diaspora state
Today transplanted people suffer a second class citizen fate
Yesterday assimilated groups suffered economic subjugation
Today visible minority oppression, is uneven wealth concentration
Yesterday we didn't view race as, political designation
Today racial and financially disparity, ravage the population

Ferguson, Mo., may take lessons
from cities like Los Angeles and Cincinnati
once the media spotlight has dimmed
and the riots sparked by the shooting of
Michael Brown have subsided. (Charlie Riedel/Associated Press)