Lives in the Balance

I keep VH1 Classics turned on when I'm at the computer for background noise (that and I'm an avid music fan of music from the 60's on up through modern times). They're doing an artist spotlight on Jackson Browne, an artist I really liked back in the 80's. One of his songs really struck me as I was listening to it "Lives in the Balance" and I thought how apt it was for the time we live in now.

Most of my friends who know me know that I consider myself to be a patriot. I love my country even if I don't always agree wtih the way our government does things. In my mind getting Saddam Hussein out of power was one of the best things that could happen to Iraq, I just don't exactly agree with the way it was done. I didn't see it when it was happening but, looking back, it's so clear now.

Anyway, I thought I'd post the lyrics here that got me to thinking and realizing how relevent this song is now nearly 20 years later.

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