We’ll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone…

How did I become an activist? Good question. I’m not even sure how it happened myself. For so long, I was a part of the problem, a cog in the Machine, taking orders and drinking the Kool Aid with a smile on my face. Then somewhere, the fierce independence gene I got from my parents, sixties kids who still had stars in their eyes, got activated by the words of the ancient prophets about justice and the peaceable kingdom, and somehow I just knew I had to take it to the streets.

This song is one of my activist songs. It’s a song about a revolution gone wrong, about how the oppressed, once liberated, can so quickly devolve into oppressors. It reminds me that there’s a fine line between activism and egoism, and that the revolution isn’t over until everyone is free.

“Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who, from Who’s Next, 1971 (Lyrics)