[Glitch]

I was driving in my car drinking coffee from Dunkin Donuts and listening to
news coverage of the war.  It occurred to me for some reason that no matter
where you go in the world, if you go into a Dunkin Donuts you can buy pretty
much the same cup of coffee and the same donut, and how strange it was for
me to be thinking these thoughts while listening to the war coverage.  Then
the lyrics popped into my head: "Manhattanization is coming...open your eyes
if you dare...carry us on to the crossroads...come to your senses and
care..."  I suddenly had to listen to that song! (If you don't see the
connection between fast food and those lyrics, look again.)
At home I put in the CD and stood in the center of the room where the "sweet
spot" is for the surround sound.  I turned it on and let Progress blast
around me.  As I have experienced so many times before, it just couldn't get
loud enough.  I felt like I wasn't quite getting it all; I moved my long
hair away from my ears thinking that would help, but it didn't; I think the
tiny bones of my ears are just too small and my nerves too thin to process
the magnitude of Midnight Oil at that volume.  I wanted to unfold huge
satellite-dish ears, swivel them around and suck in the sound.  I couldn't,
and instead it sort of hit my ears and only a fraction of it actually
reached my brain.  
I lay down on the floor and let the tears run down my temples.
I WOULD PAY OUT A KING'S RANSOM
IF WE COULD JUST UNDERSTAND...
that going to war will NEVER be the answer to Saddam Hussein.
GOT YOUR LAST MEAL FILLED UP WITH PESTICIDE
HAMBURGER CHAIN THIRD WORLD INFANTICIDE
GOT ROBOT CAR YOUR JOBS WILL DISAPPEAR
IT'S CALLED THE POLITICS OF A BRAND NEW YEAR
Our economy is in the toilet and now we're picking through our pocket lint
for $80 billion dollars to fund war.
YOU MAY BE SAFE IN YOUR HEMISPHERE...
Exactly...here I am, I can't hear guns or bombs...I'm safe...unlike the
Iraqi woman, 26 years old like me, lying in bed awake listening to the
air-raid sirens and the shake of the bombs.
WHO WAITS FOR THE PLANES TO COME
WHEN EVERYBODY'S GOT YOU ON THE RUN.
Here comes the hercules, indeed.  Iraq, America has arrived to blow you to
bits and then put you back together.
YOU TALK OF TIMES OF PEACE FOR ALL
AND THEN PREPARE FOR WAR.
ALL PEOPLE WITH DREAMS...ALL PEOPLE WITH DREAMS NEVER WOKEN AT NIGHT BY THE
SOUND OF GUNS...
We just don't know what that's like, do we?
WHATEVER YOU'VE DONE,
THERE'S A HOPE IN THE HEART SAYS NEVER AGAIN.
Never again.
War is not the answer and my hope was always that we had learned that.  I
see now we have not.
And particularly, with the TV flickering in the background,
WATCHING PICTURES OF THE WORLD...WATCHING PICTURES AS THEY PASS ME BY...
DON'T SIT AROUND IN SILENCE YOU DON'T NEED A LICENCE
IT'S MOVING IN A HURRY THERE'S NO NEED TO WORRY
WE'RE REALLY GOING TO CHANGE IT THE CRITICAL MASS APPROACHES
I CAN ALMOST HEAR IT
Funny, I can't.  We aren't really going to change it, because the wishes of
so many are being completely ignored.  I don't feel the critical mass is
approaching...I don't know that it would make a difference if it did.
I can't believe this is happening!
To all the pro-war folks: as I said on powderpolitics, I believe S. Hussein
is bad news and should not be allowed to continue to oppress his people.
Ditto with Qadafi, and Kim, and a number of other non-democratically elected
leaders around the world.  Does this mean we should go to war with them?  My
emphatic answer is no.  Our foreign policy SUCKS, and had we built bridges
instead of bombing them, helping people resist their governments from within
and teaching democracy the way a missionary teaches the Bible, the world
would be a better place today.  This war is just the latest chapter in a
terrible foreign policy written in tears and blood.
And I weep tonight that the mighty, eloquent, brilliant voice of Midnight
Oil has been silenced.
--Glitch Baby

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got your last meal filled up with pesticide
hamburger chain third world infanticide
got robot car your job will disappear
it's called the politics of a brand new year
some say that's progress i say that's cruel

--midnight oil
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