If you take a train with me Uptown to the misery Of ghetto streets in morning light Ooh, they're always night Take a window seat, put down your Times You can read between the lines Just meet the faces that you meet Beyond the window's pane And it might begin to teach you How to give a damn about your fellow man And it might begin to teach you How to give a damn about your fellow man Where would you go to sleep sometimes With rats instead of nursery rhymes? With a hunger and your other children by her side And you wonder if you'll share your bed With something else that must be fed For fear may lay beside you Or, at most, sleep down the hall And it might begin to teach you How to give a damn about your fellow man And it might begin to teach you How to give a damn about your fellow man Come and see how well despair is seasoned by the stifling air See our ghetto in the good old sizzling summertime Suppose the streets were all on fire The flames, like tempers, leaping high Suppose you lived there all your life Do you think that you would mind? And it might begin to reach you How we give a damn about our fellow man And it might begin to teach you How to give a damn about your fellow man And I might have got to reach you Oh, don't give a damn, hmm Hmm, hmm, hmm Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm Hmm, hmm, hmm Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm