Lyrics

They shuttered the pressroom and turned off the lights, Said “truth is a danger when spoken at night.” They painted the poets as traitors and spies, And covered the stars with their broadcast of lies. A voice in the distance still sings through the static— “This silence ain’t golden, it’s just autocratic.”

 They came for the teachers with laws and red pens, Said, “History’s ours now, forget where you’ve been.” The past got erased with a flick of their hand, No mention of justice, no blood on the land. But memory lingers in pages well-worn, And whispers the truth that refuses to mourn.

So rise up, my brothers, my sisters, my kin, The line may be thin but the light’s getting in. No tyrant can bury the will to be free— Like rivers through stone, we carve liberty.

 They blamed all our struggles on folks not from here, With walls made of fear and the smoke of false cheer. But I’ve shared my bread with a stranger in flight, And seen more of freedom in one candle’s light Than in all their gold or their border commands— Truth walks with the weary across every land.

 Election day came with its guns and its games, They shouted of fraud and then counted the names Of those who had dared to believe in the vote— But ballots don’t lie when they carry your hope. A whisper grows louder with each silent stand— You can’t stop the wind with your trembling hands.

So rise up, my brothers, my sisters, my kin, The line may be thin but the light’s getting in. No tyrant can bury the will to be free— Like rivers through stone, we carve liberty.

Let them write laws with their backs to the dawn, We are the daylight, we carry it on. Each truth that you whisper, each story you tell, Is a crack in the silence, a breaking of spell.

 So rise up, my brothers, my sisters, my kin, The tide’s rolling in and the healing begins. With courage and kindness, with song and with plea— We are the ones who will keep us all free.