“OK,” the new song by John Ondrasik, who records and performs under the Five For Fighting moniker, does not begin with the piano-based melodic lilt of hits such as “Superman (It’s Not Easy)" or “100 Years.” Instead, Ondrasik pushes forward near-brutish block chords, first as a backdrop to New York City mayor Eric Adams’ impassioned speech on October 10, 2023, decrying domestic protests supporting Hamas following its satanic attack against Israeli citizens on October 7, then without relent backing Ondrasik as he sings:

This is a time for choosing
This is a time to mourn
The moral man is losing
Forbidden, lost, forlorn

I don’t understand
I don’t understand
How you can look yourself in the mirror

We
We are
We are not
We
We are
We are not
OK

The song’s accompanying video is even more unflinching, but it is incredibly powerful. It is not pleasant viewing — but it is truthful. It is a purposeful assault on falsehood-based, dewy-eyed wishful dreaming, mixing clips of brutalized Israelis with antisemitic protestors and those in academia insisting there must be “context” considered regarding calls for the extermination of Jews on their campuses.

This is a time for choosing...

New Song/Music Video - "OK"#WeAreNotOK pic.twitter.com/prBgT55ZqR

— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) January 18, 2024

Ondrasik notes:

“On October 10th, 2023, the Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, made a powerful speech, decrying the celebrations of Hamas massacres across New York City. His words of conscience “We Are Not Alright” begin my new song and music video “OK,” which addresses the barbaric Hamas October 7 attacks in Israel, and the global fallout that resulted. Such is the theme of this song. In short, ‘We Are Not OK.’

“We Are Not OK as a nation when certain members of Congress refuse to condemn terrorists who kidnap and decapitate babies.

“We Are Not OK as a world when the United Nations General Assembly rejects a motion to condemn Hamas and U.N. General Secretary Antonio Guterres seeks to “contextualize” the brutal rapes, murders, kidnappings and terrorism of October 7.

“We Are Not OK when legacy women’s rights groups and global organizations supposedly devoted to women’s human rights have little to no comment after grandmothers, women, and young girls are raped, tortured, and murdered.

“We Are Not OK when concertgoers celebrating in the desert are raped, massacred, and kidnapped at a festival for peace – and the majority response from music industry executives, artists, and Hollywood are lawyered statements loaded with cowardly apathy.

“We Are Not OK when our flagship universities become harbors for gross anti-Semitism and radicalization, headed by presidents, boards, and faculty steeped in moral and intellectual corruption, who lack the spine to simply declare right from wrong.

“We Are Not OK when leading media platforms seem more focused on creating narratives of moral equivalency between the actions of Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas, rather than denouncing the barbarity and terrorism on Oct 7th and ignoring Palestinian innocents being used as human shields in hospitals and schools, built over terrorist tunnels, funded by international aid.

“And on and on…

“Clearly, the causes of the moral decline on our campuses, in our culture, and institutions have been growing and metastasizing for decades. An inability to clearly call out the horrors of Hamas’ terrorist atrocities is not the root of the problem; it is the symptom of a deeper decay.

“We can look away no longer. Evil is on the march and wears many faces.

“This is a time for choosing.

“We Are Not OK.”

No, we are not OK. Thank God — literally — for John Ondrasik calling them out. Would that more artists, regardless of political affiliation, follow his lead. But sadly, most probably won’t.