More oddly-prescient musings of Jackson Browne.

“Lives in the Balance”
Jackson Browne
Lives in the Balance

I’ve been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in 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 its people
And a nation lies drifting to war
There’s a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs…

On the radio talk shows and TV
You hear one thing again and again
That the USA stands for freedom
And we’ve come to the aid of a friend.
But who are the ones that we call our friends,
these governments killing its own?
Or the people who finally can’t take anymore
So they pick up a gun or a knife or a stone?

And there are lives in the balance
And there are people under fire
And there are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire…

There’s a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that fought in the places
Where 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
At the same time they sell us our wars.
I wanna know who the men in the shadows are
I wanna hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they’re never the ones to fight and to die.

And there are lives in the balance
And there are people under fire
And there are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire…

It’s still surprisingly hard to write about 9/11. It galls me to see, again, our national “leaders” exploit this tragedy for political ends. And it saddens me that we don’t seem to have learned any lessons. So it’s really not in me to pen something deep and insightful. Instead, I’ll fall back on the melodic musings of Jackson Browne, writing long before today but seeing, apparently, the same sickening game.

As if I really didn’t understand
That I was just another part of the plan
I went on looking for the promise, believing in of the motherland.
From the comfort of a dreamer’s bed
And the comfort of my own head
I went off speaking of the future while others fought and bled
The kid I was when I first left home
Was looking for his freedom and a life of his own
But the freedom wasn’t so sweet
When the truth was known.

I have prayed for America
I was made for America
It’s in my blood and in my bones
By the dawn’s early light
By all I know is right
We’re gonna reap what we have sown.

As if freedom was a question of might
As if loyalty was black and white
You hear people say it all the time “My country, wrong or right”.
I wanna know what that’s got to do
With what it takes to find out what’s true
With everyone from the President on down Trying to keep it from you.

The thing I wonder about the dads and moms
Who send their sons to the Viet Nams
Will they really think their way of life
Has been protected when the next war comes.

I have prayed for America
I was made for America
Her shining dream plays in my mind
By the rocket’s red glare
A generation’s blank stare
We’d better wake her up this time.

The kid I was when I first left home
Was looking for his freedom and a life of his own
But the freedom wasn’t so sweet
When the truth was known.

I have prayed for America
I was made for America
I can’t let go ’til she’s come ’round
Until the land of the free
Is awake and can see –
Until her conscience has been found.