Another Day (The Violence Song)

It took a few days but I finally managed to say what I wanted to say in this song. This school shooting really has me frustrated and sad. Already copycats are about and more gun violence is spreading and nothing will be done, I fear, once again to help prevent another tragedy as gun laws will stay the same and people will move on when the headlines change.

Another Day (The Violence Song)
I’m getting nauseous, my friends,
in the circles of these repetitious days
The spin-cycle of our ignorance
materializes once again on the front page
Another angry confused child, another gun,
another school…you know the rest
A little bloodshed with your McMuffin
makes your breakfast that much harder to digest
The headlines now in bold font
with the progression of the weeks will start to fade
And the media attention shifts again
to celebrity fashion trends and rehab stays
Our short attention span for tragedy
will get a brand new coat of gray
So turn off the lights, close your eyes
and wake up to another day

We’re satiated by consumerism,
Hollywood and reality TV
We’re placated and pacified
by the pollution shielding actualities
Our lives become hung up on some strings
held by the corporate puppeteers
Who feed upon our incognizance
as the fuel that funds their fantastic fiscal years
Why be burdened by the suffering and greed
and hate when we can simply turn it off?
The swine will never question
what the master pours into the trough
“So lap it up, you hungry fools”, he says,
“everything looks so good at the buffet”
There’s nothing in the liquid here,
close your eyes and wash down another day

We all must face the repercussions
of the culture and society we breed
We don’t question what will grow there
when we smile, stoop and plant the seed
There’s something terribly wrong here
when kids can get bullets like they were sticks of gum
And when our children have to resort to conveying
their emotions behind the barrel of a gun
Could we have listened more or talked to them more
or given them someplace for confidence
No, don’t blame us, it was the movies, the video games,
the comic books, the music that caused this violence
And maybe they are right and maybe they are wrong
and maybe no one can really say
So point your fingers but close your eyes
and rage on another day

Search the political pockets and within
find weapons makers as though they were flecks lint
Read between the lines and the paragraphs,
the biggest tragedies are never what never see print
On the backs of the blinded
the towers of corruption will grow ever higher
And with our silence and inaction
towards inequity we only stoke the pyre
How can we question gun control with these reminders
of the unrestraint that can be reached
And keep building walls and dams and levees
so our sanctuaries of naivete can not be breached
It’s nice and warm here by the television
inside with our distractions and decay
So change the channel, not yourself,
close your eyes and live another day

There’s something lurking in the shadows
of society making killers of our youth
There comes a point where we have to walk
eyes wide open into the fires of the truth
When the heat is close enough for us
to feel our skin seer maybe then we’ll comprehend
That there’s a problem, it’s not leaving,
it’s in your face now and you can no longer pretend
That the bullets are not forged by those who
will find profit in our hatred and in our fears
How long will we continue to be willingly
sedated cogs to move their gears?
The liberty of weaponry’s a right so wrong,
contemplate the benefits as we await
Another angry, confused child to open our eyes
somewhere else some other day…