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What Are You Willing To Do?

from Songs From the Crux by Walter Ehresman

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Click here for the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHWJ_zcnNY8

This is a song Ehresman wrote toward the end of September, 2020, and for October made available as a single with 100% of the money he received going out to the Democratic committee to re-take the Senate.

It's no secret what a huge Dylan fan Ehresman is, and that influence can be traced back across his albums for over 30 years. This song is very much in that mold--one voice, one guitar, and one direct question: "what are you willing to do?"

Powerful stuff. Hearts and minds music.

lyrics

What Are You Willing To Do?
(© 2020 Walter Ehresman)

We’ve never seen mirrors like this—
all shown in the bright light of day;
Such rot in the roots of our tree
drops the canopy down in decay;
And good people won’t break from the herd
as the thugs wrap their guns in the flag,
as the nobles put match to the pyre,
as the “salt of the earth” gets sandbagged.

What are you willing to do?
For what will you turn off the screen?
At what point will you care what is true?
And for what will you deign to be seen?
And when will you open the door
and join righteous feet on the street?
When will you tell them “no more,”
and stop better angels’ retreat?

Silence enables, it’s true—
your friendship tells them it’s ok;
With their hate and their guns in the night—
then to dine in your home the next day;
And the stares that you’ll get when you stand,
and the daggers they’ll look when you say
that hypocrisy poisons our land—
it’s our children’s future you betray.

credits

from Songs From the Crux, released April 1, 2021
Walter Ehresman: vocals, acoustic guitar.

Snipe Bog Records.
p. 2021 Walter Ehresman

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Walter Ehresman San Miguel De Allende, Mexico

Called "the quintessential Austin DIY artist" by famed local disc jockey Charlie Martin , Walter Ehresman was an eccentric presence in the Austin music scene from the '80s until his 2015 move to Mexico. A prolific songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording artist...and a restless musical spirit, always looking for something new, expressed with fearlessly honest, socially-conscious lyrics. ... more

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