New Year

Take a trip, see the pretty lights
I love this time of year
Tired hopes ring true
Sick of all that's still so wrong
Seen my share of false dawns
But I feel we're due
For a good year

Claim privileges as a right
Follow a man with no insight
Throw the same old arguments out again
"Gun free zones" don't cause harm
Civil societies are not armed
"Concealed carry" is peace on a razor's edge

Yet from the depths of all this pain
Some kids stand up, with things to say
And they won't stand down
For them the time is now
Angry youth with open minds
Confront beliefs that tightly bind
Their ideas take hold
Of the intractable
And change begins
Make marriage rights a battle ground
Let ideology hunt them down
Make them prove their love 'cause they're not the same
There's no "one true morality"
No sin in diversity
Stop exploiting faith to fan the flames

And although I know it seems
The end may justify the means
It should not have gone
And dragged on so long
Déjà vu, nothing new
But while it took time
This paradigm, that was so unkind
Has been left behind
And so things change

There are times when I am struck
By how so many things
Have come so far
I know that to trust too much, will often make a fool of you
But it's shaping up
To be a good year