Lives In The Balance... PLEASE READ

[ChiciB1]

Perhaps this should be posted in the Lounge, but it's not as active there so I decided to post this here. I know it can get re-directed, but this is something I've been wanting to present for some time now.

Back in the 80's Jackson Browne wrote a song that affected me tremendously. It's called "Lives In The Balance". Back then we had trouble spots, but it was after Viet Nam and BEFORE Iraq so now the words are even more compelling. I'm going to write them down for others to read.

LIVES IN THE BALANCE -- 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.
When 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.
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.

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 everything from youth to religion.
The same way 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.

As I sit here writing these words down, I can remember every beat of the song. I know where the crescendos come and fade away, I KNOW this song so well and I've played it over and over and over for many years. I'm a BIG Jackson Browne fan and am happy to say that I saw him in concert several times. He recently toured before the election with "The Boss" and that concert WAS... I'm at a loss for words! The Greatest!!

[babylonsister]

1. "Back in the 80s". This is so

applicable now. Thanks, Chici, for the memories! :-)

[asjr]

2. So on the money! It could have been written yesterday.

[ChiciB1]

4. I Find It Totally Amazing At How

this song seems to have been written for TODAY! As you said it COULD have been written yesterday, but there is actually a CD called "Lives In The Balance"! I just happened to have purchased his Greatest Hits and this was on it. I had the cassette of the original, so now I have to buy the CD.

Browne has been political for some time now and has written quite a few that are compelling. I wonder if he has thought about the coincidences of this song. I've never tried to contact him and don't even know how. He did have some bad publicity ala Daryl Hannah, but that was some time ago. His son is now grown and co-owns a club in NYC.

I'm also big on Dylan and Joan Baez... so I've been political for quite some time. AAAH, the memories of connecting to others through music...

[WillyT]

3. Straight To The Heart...

This is part of what is so utterly frustrating. He wrote those words at a time when most of this administration was cutting it's teeth on fascistic world domination.

And here we are... in the middle of the second act.

Those who refuse to learn...

:nuke:

[ChiciB1]

5. I'm Kicking My Own Post....

because I think the parallels are eerie!