Part i

Are you optimistic 'bout the way things are going? 
No, I never ever think of it at all

Don't you ever worry
When you see what's going down? 

No, I try to mind my business, that is, no business at all

When it's time to function as a feeling human being
Will your bachelor of arts help you get by? 

I hope to study further, a few more years or so
I also hope to keep a steady high

Will you try to change things
Use the power that you have, the power of a million new ideas? 

What is this power you speak of and this need for things to change? 
I always thought that everything was fine

Don't you feel repression just closing in around? 
No, the campus here is very, very free

Don't it make you angry the way war is dragging on? 
Well, I hope the president knows what he's into, I don't know

Don't you ever see the starvation in the city where you live
All the needless hunger all the needless pain? 

I haven't been there lately, the country is so fine
But my neighbors don't seem hungry 'cause they haven't got the time

Thank you for the talk, you know you really eased my mind
I was troubled by the shapes of things to come

Well, if you had my outlook your feelings would be numb
You'd always think that everything was fine

Part ii

We can make it happen
We can change the world now
We can save the children
We can make it better
We can make it happen
We can save the children
We can make it happen