MUSICAL INTERLUDE: JACKSON BROWNE, BRUCE COCKBURN

 The Face of War ~ Salvador Dali

Two of my favourite songs of all time. 

First is "Lives in the Balance" by Jackson Browne. 

The second is, and oh I LOVE singing this when I am especially frustrated by war, "If I had a Rocket Launcher" by Bruce Cockburn, one of Canada's finer poet/musicians. 

There is something very therapeutic about singing, "If I had a rocket launcher, some sunnuvabitch would die." LOUDLY.

Works for me. 

I never said I was about peace and love ALL the time, my dear readers! 

 LIVES IN THE BALANCE by Jackson Browne

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 a people

And a country is drifting to war

And 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 the t.v.

You hear one thing again and again

How the u.s.a. 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?

Or the people who finally can't take any more

And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone 

There are lives in the balance

There are people under fire

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 are fought in 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 every thing 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

They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are

But they're never the ones to fight or to die 

And there are lives in the balance

There are people under fire

There are children at the cannons

And there is blood on the wire 

 IF I HAD A ROCKET LAUNCHER by BRUCE COCKBURN

Here comes the helicopter ~ second time today
Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away
How many kids they've murdered only God can say

If I had a rocket launcher...
I'd make somebody pay

I don't believe in guarded borders and I don't believe in hate
I don't believe in generals or their stinking torture states
And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate

If I had a rocket launcher...
I would retaliate

On the Rio Lacantun, one hundred thousand wait
To fall down from starvation ~ or some less humane fate
Cry for Guatemala, with a corpse in every gate

If I had a rocket launcher...
I would not hesitate

I want to raise every voice ~ at least I've got to try
Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes.
Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry

If I had a rocket launcher...
Some son of a bitch would die