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I've been waiting for something to happen |
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For a week or a month or a year |
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With the blood in the ink of the headlines |
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And the sound of the crowd in my ear |
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You might ask what it takes to remember |
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When you know that you've seen it before |
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Where a government lies to a people |
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And a country is drifting to war |
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And there's a shadow on the faces |
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Of the men who send the guns |
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To the wars that are fought in places |
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Where their business interest runs |
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On the radio talk shows and the t.v. |
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You hear one thing again and again |
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How the u.s.a. stands for freedom |
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And we come to the aid of a friend |
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But who are the ones that we call our friends-- |
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These governments killing their own? |
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Or the people who finally can't take any more |
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And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone |
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There are lives in the balance |
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There are people under fire |
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There are children at the cannons |
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And there is blood on the wire |
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There's a shadow on the faces |
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Of the men who fan the flames |
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Of the wars that are fought in places |
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Where we can't even say the names |
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They sell us the president the same way |
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They sell us our clothes and our cars |
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They sell us every thing from youth to religion |
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The same time they sell us our wars |
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I want to know who the men in the shadows are |
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I want to hear somebody asking them why |
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They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are |
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But they're never the ones to fight or to die |
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And there are lives in the balance |
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There are people under fire |
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There are children at the cannons |
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And there is blood on the wire |