[BYSTANDERS]
You can gripe
All you like,
You can sneer,
“Where are the heroes?”
You can shout about
How everything’s a lie.

Then that flag goes by…

You can snipe
At the greed,
At the need
To be a winner,
At the hype
You keep hearing
From on High,

And you think, “Why try?”
And you want to cry.
Then that flag goes by,
And you think, “That’s why:
‘Cause of that idea,
That incredible idea.”

What you want to do is brag,
“I’m a part of that.
Yeah I know it’s just a flag,
Okay but still…”
For a minute you say, “Hey,
We could—we will
Fix everything tomorrow.”
For a minute you’re aware
Of feeling proud,
And then suddenly you’re staring
At the crowd
And you’re thinking,
“There’s no link I can see,
They’re as different from me
As they possibly could be—”

Then you see
The idea…

And you know
It’s a dream,
And you know
It isn’t perfect,
And at times
It may seem
To go awry.

Then that flag goes by,
And no matter how you sigh,
“It’s the bright blue sky,
It’s just Mom and apple pie,”
There’s this thing you can’t deny,
This idea:
That it’s fixable tomorrow,
We’ve a chance,
There’s a choice.
We can change ourselves tomorrow,
We’re in charge,
We’ve a voice,
An idea about tomorrow
To remember
When the flag has gone by.