I've been waiting for something to happen
for a week or a month or a year
with the blood and the ink of the headlines
and the sound of the crowd in my ear
you might ask what it takes to remember
when you know that you've seen it before
where a government lies to a people and
a country is drifting to war and does
the shadow on the faces of the men
who send the guns to the wars that are
fought in places where the business
interest runs on the radio talk shows on
TV you hear one thing again and again
how the USA stands for freedom and we
come to the aid of a friend
but who are the ones that we call our friends these
governments killing their own other
people who find they can't take anymore
they pick up a gun or a brick or stone
and their lives and the balance there
are people on the fire there are children at
the cannons and there is blood on the wire
and
there's a shadow on the faces of the men who
fend the flames of the wars that are fought
in places we can't even say the names
they sell us the president the same way
they sell us our clothes and our
cars they sell us everything from youth to
religion the same time they sell us our
wars I want to know who the men in the
shadows are I want to hear somebody
asking them why it can be counted on to
tell us who our enemies are but they're
never the ones to fight or to die and
their lives in the balance there are
people under fire there are children at
the cannons there is blood on the wire
and their lives in the balance
people under fire
children at the cannons
there are