“From the moment you thought
You're on the bad line, assembly line
Keeps on messing with your mind
From the moment your boss
They just came up with
The way you think
Got too down, admittin' it
They tell you you can do your very own thing
Ooh, but try people, see the herded green, yeah
Soon little boys will learn to be ashamed of tears they cry
If a girl wants a football, someone must go in and ask her why”
“Standing in line, marking time
Waiting for the welfare dime
'Cause they can't buy a job
The man in the silk suit hurries by
As he catches the poor old ladies' eyes
Just for fun he says, "get a job"
That's just the way it is
Some things will never change
That's just the way it is
Ah, but don't you believe them
Said, hey little boy you can't go where the others go
'Cause you don't look like they do
Said, hey old man how can you stand
To think that way
Did you really think about it
Before you made the rules?
He said, "son
That's just the way it is
Some things will never change
That's just the way it is
Ah, but don't you believe them"
Oh yeah
well, they passed a law in '64
To give those who ain't got a little more
But it only goes so far
Because the law don't change another's mind
When all it sees at the hiring time
Is the line on the color bar, no, no
That's just the way it is
And some things will never change
That's just the way it is
That's just the way it is, it is, it is, it is”
“The Thirteenth Amendment says that slavery's abolished (Shit)
Look at all these slave masters posin' on yo' dollar (Get it)”
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“Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses”
“Those who died are justified
For wearing the badge,
they're the chosen whites
You justify those that died
By wearing the badge,
they're the chosen whites”
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“I just need some comfort
Some kind of belief
That this war we're fighting
Can really bring some peace
There's no rhyme nor reason
Or sweet melody
More and more weapons
Mean less security
It's been a long, long time coming
But I know that change is gonna come
And I've tried to find it
Some better place
Where having the biggest gun
Ain't some kind of race”
“Oh, Lord, don't let 'em shoot us
Oh, Lord, don't let 'em stab us
Oh, Lord, no more swastikas
Oh, Lord, don't let 'em tar and feather us!
Oh, Lord, no more Ku Klux Klan
Name me someone who's ridiculous, Dannie
Governor Faubus!
Why is he so sick and ridiculous?
He won't permit integrated schools
Then he's a fool!
Boo! Nazi Fascist supremists!Boo! Ku Klux Klan
(With your Jim Crow plan)
Name me a handful that's ridiculous, Dannie Richmond
Bilbo, Thomas, Faubus, Russel, Rockefeller, Byrd, Eisenhower
Why are they so sick and ridiculous?
Two, four, six, eight:
They brainwash and teach you hate
H-E-L-L-O, Hello”
Bill Mallonee says on his Facebook:
“One of the most wonderful & engaging passages I've ever read by Frederick Buechner. It's about Hosea's wife, Gomer.
Seriously, enjoy...~b …
“GOMER WAS ALWAYS GOOD COMPANY—a little heavy with the lipstick maybe, a little less than choosy about men and booze, a little loud, but great at a party and always good for a laugh. Then the prophet Hosea came along wearing a sandwich board that read "The End Is at Hand" on one side and "Watch Out" on the other.
The first time he asked her to marry him, she thought he was kidding. The second time she knew he was serious, but thought he was crazy. The third time she said yes. He wasn't exactly a swinger, but he had a kind face, and he was generous, and he wasn't all that crazier than everybody else. Besides, any fool could see he loved her.
Give or take a little, she even loved him back for a while, and they had three children, whom Hosea named with queer names like Not-pitied-for-God-will-no-longer-pity-Israel-now-that-it's-gone-to-the-dogs so that every time the roll was called at school, Hosea would be scoring a prophetic bull's-eye in absentia. But everybody could see the marriage wasn't going to last, and it didn't.
While Hosea was off hitting the sawdust trail, Gomer took to hitting as many night spots as she could squeeze into a night, and any resemblance between her next batch of children and Hosea was purely coincidental. It almost killed him, of course. Every time he raised a hand to her, he burst into tears. Every time she raised one to him, he was the one who ended up apologizing.
He tried locking her out of the house a few times when she wasn't in by five in the morning, but he always opened the door when she finally showed up and helped get her to bed if she couldn't see straight enough to get there herself. Then one day she didn't show up at all.
He swore that this time he was through with her for keeps, but of course he wasn't. When he finally found her, she was lying passed out in a highly specialized establishment located above an adult bookstore, and he had to pay the management plenty to let her out of her contract. She'd lost her front teeth and picked up some scars you had to see to believe, but Hosea had her back again and that seemed to be all that mattered.
He changed his sandwich board to read "God Is Love" on one side and "There's No End to It" on the other, and when he stood on the street corner belting out
How can I give you up, O Ephraim!
How can I hand you over, O Israel!
For I am God and no mortal,
The Holy One in your midst.
(Hosea 11:8-9)
Nobody can say how many converts he made, but one thing that's for sure is that, including Gomer's, there was seldom a dry eye in the house.
(Hosea 1-3; 11)”
-Originally published in Peculiar Treasures and later in Beyond Words
//////
Recording from Vigilantes of Love Live at The Be Here Now on 2000-04-14 available at the Live Music Archive.
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Download the show for yourself
“Look out for my love
It's in your neighborhood
I know things are gonna change
But I can't say bad or good.”
“Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
It's getting hard to be someone”
“Been traveling these wide roads for so long
My heart's been far from you
Ten-thousand miles gone
Oh, I wanna come near and give ya
Every part of me
But there's blood on my hands
And my lips aren't clean
In my darkness I remember
Momma's words reoccur to me
"Surrender to the good Lord
And he'll wipe your slate clean"
Take me to your river
I wanna go
Oh, go on
Take me to your river
I wanna know
Tip me in your smooth waters
I go in
As a man with many crimes
Come up for air
As my sins flow down the Jordan
Oh, I wanna come near and give ya
Every part of me
But there's blood on my hands
And my lips aren't clean
Take me to your river
I wanna go
Go on,
Take me to your river
I wanna know
I wanna go, wanna go, wanna go
I wanna know, wanna know, wanna know
Wanna go, wanna go, wanna go
Wanna know, wanna know, wanna know
Wanna go, wanna go, wanna go
Wanna know, wanna know, wanna know
Take me to your river
I wanna go
Lord, please let me know
Take me to your river
I wanna know”
“You can map the lay of the land
Yeah, you can describe the sad terrain
Let us survey all the borders
Yeah, but it all still looks the same
When you find there's nothing special
Yeah, about that big hole in your heart
'Cause everybody's got one
With precious little time to talk about it”
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“Will We Find It?
Will We Find Another Way To Empathize?
Will We Open Up and See It Eye-To-Eye
Or Will We All Run Away?
And Another One Is Gone
Another Mother’s Son Is Gone Away
Police Man Let His Pistol Free
And the poet Ran To Write A Eulogy
Po’ Mama, All Her Cries Are Drowned By Sirens
Rifle Man Calls It "Liberty"
Preacher Trusts The Trinity
But Only Mama, She Holds All That Silence
You Can Find It
You Can Find It Anywhere Their Laughter Lives
Ain't It Sacred As A Prayer On Your Lips
Say No More, Say No More”
“It takes a more intelligent man to squash a fight
than to set one off, knowledge I'll let some off
Cause nowadays, everybody's a killer
And as for me, no other MC is iller
but still a thorn scrapes my heart
when I see another life that's been torn apart
over nonsense, no law, no order, it's evidence
that the money only takes precedence
Cause everybody wants power
While the innocent are born or die, during every hour
I scowl as I look upon evil
but I must have the strength, to spark awareness in my people
And we will learn to respect our neighbors”
“While I'd not yet found my bearings
Those it girls hit the ground
Comparing the way I was to the way she was
Sayin' I'm not stylish enough and I cry too much
And I listened because I hadn't found my own voice yet
So all I could hear was the noise that
People make when they don't know shit
But I didn't know that yet
I grew up in the shoes they told me I could fill
When they came around, I would stand real still
A girl can roll her eyes at me and killI
I got the idea I wasn't real
I thought being blacklisted would be grist for the mill
Until I realized I'm still here (I'm still here)
I grew up in the shoes they told me I could fill
Shoes that were not made for running up that hill
And I need to run up that hill,
I need to run up that hillI,
I will, I will, I will, I will”
“Evil is a relay sport,
when the one who's burned,
turns to pass the torch”
“They say that God is great
They say that God is love and I believe them
Don’t fear the random fate
I trust the hand of the Almighty and the infinite
His truth is marching on
Let me know your enormity
And my tininess
And help me see your infinity
And my finiteness
And I’m fucking starved for love
I deeply need to feel connection with the infinite
I want the nourishment
I need to drink it just like water, and it will sustain me
His truth is marching on”
“No time for breezy
No time for arguments
No time for love like now”
“Where did this all begin to change?
The lockdown memories can’t sustain
This glistening, hanging free fall.”
“You were scorned and killed
we had run for the hills
‘Till the stone had been lifted from the grave
All our hearts were afraid
we were hiding away
‘Till the stone had been lifted from the grave
We had counted the cost
now our hope had been lost
‘Till the stone had been lifted from the grave
All the words that we’ve read
we’d forgotten what you said
‘Till the stone had been lifted from the grave
You were born here to die
for such sinners as I
‘Till the stone had been lifted away
What a day, what a year
what a life now without fear
For the stone had been lifted from the grave.
Adonai.
Elohim.”
“So three days in darkness slept
The Morning Sun of righteousness
But rose to shame the throes of death
And over turn his rule
Now daughters and the sons of men
Would pay not their dues again
The debt of blood they owed was rent
When the day rolled a new
On Friday a thief
On Sunday a King
Laid down in grief
But awoke with the keys
To Hell on that day
The first born of the slain
The Man Jesus Christ Laid death in his grave.”
“Blow up your TV
throw away your paper
Go to the country,
build you a home
Plant a little garden,
eat a lot of peaches
Try an find Jesus on your own”
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