BamaD
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Greta75
I was having some nostalgia and revisiting the band that brought me into hardcore music, which is my first love where music is concern.
So the very first song, and first band I ever heard was this classic New York Hardcore Band, called Sick of It All.
And the song is called Just Look Around.
It struck me, I first visited the US at 12 yr old, and after my visit, I discovered this song, although non-related. My impression of US back then was it's very unsafe, gunshots keep happening, and lots of people begging and living on the streets. We even got attack for not giving money. This was in LA. But this is a musician who wrote this song in 1992, that was his perception of his own country. I visited for the first time in 1993. It struck me today that, everything he sees in 1992 is still mostly true on 2016. Nothing has changed ha! That's amazing, these lyrics can mostly be applicable to what's been happening the past few years. Not much progress.
The question they keep asking me
how can one so young be so bitter and angry
well, the answer is plain to see
maybe if they wern't so blind they'd see what i see
i see the homeless livin' out on the street
on every corner they're asking for money
i try to help them whenever i can
but sometimes i can't afford to help myself
i see diseases and modern plagues of our times
the greed of our leaders has made them blind
to our problems
they spend millions overseas,
people right here are fightin' wars everyday
I see the whites that hate the blacks
blacks against the jews, race against religion
and the're all too blind to see
When we fight each other it puts all of them at ease
it keeps us so busy, so they can do what they please
election time comes and they're out for votes
that's when you see and hear from them the most
this is what they're calling a democracy
that's just another word for hypocrisy
we keep fallin' for the bait
when we realize, it's always too late
I see the whites that hate the blacks
blacks that hate the jews, brother against brother
and they're all to blind to see
As the rich get richer, the poor goin' hungry
i've seen the toll it takes on the workingman's family
education system that's obsolete
can't hold a kid's interest or keep 'em off the street
see a father's fear, hear a mother's cry
what kind of a nation lets their children die
government's corrupt and full of red tape
then you're gonna ask me why i hate
Why don't you open up your eyes so you can see
open up your ears so you can hear
take a look around and you will find
take a look around and you will find out why
Another brilliant political band I loved since a teen is The Broadways, a pop punk band. This is their own country through their own description.
The song is Jonathon Kozol was Right, and was released in 1998. Not too far away.
i read a book the other day about public schools in our nation
an indictment of our prevailing caste system
it seems so many things i've taken for granted others cant access at all
i ditched computer class while others had no books
i learned to hate my halls, there's holes in walls in schools right in my town
serving the rich, keeping the lower classes down
what do i mean by this statement?
it seems only too clear with your english class in a bathroom
how well do you think you'd fare?
i read of schools so overcrowded no room could be saved
not auditoriums, cafeterias or closet space.
a school's income is determined by property tax
and how much money can you get from poor mexican
and black families trapped in slums
poor kids need the most attention
but since they're untaxable they get none
and because the system sucks when the kids grow up
they'll have to send their kids back into the system that fucked them
it's a cycle that for years has not been broken
there's a name for this it's social reproduction
and we maintain this caste system by letting them enforce it
we're all flowers growing in a garbage can"
the teachers tell their kids
but how can a flower grow when the sunlight's blocked by the lid?
distribute property tax more fairly at least that's a start
cuz little flowers can't grow in the darkness they need everything we've got.
This song is 2nd Grade Cells 4:23, released in 2000.
Tears are not enough to change a system
Do we want an equal race for education?
Shop, buy, consume, this is what we teach our children to look up to
Economic security doesn't seem to be the meaning of education to me
We need to teach about diversity, compassion and love
About the effects of technology
To be aware that we destroy while we consume
To question all authority
No money for public education
But ample funds to keep people in prison
Jails can now be run by major corporations
Prisons offer more and cheaper labor
Found courage in the center of a bomb, green back dollars
We can blow up anything we want
Since when is national defense more important than teaching children?
I'm afraid its always been, state of the union
Catch phrase builds public opinion in the closed eyes of a nation
Work around the problem, sweep it under carpets
Lock it up in prisons till it's forgotten
We're approaching the millennium
Education is more important than bombs
More police on the streets isn't solving problems
Who are we going to turn to
To teach our children to question this machine,
education, the dead American dream
In Indiana the number of cells built is determined by
the socio-economic status of a class of second graders
The cells all must be filled
With every prison that we build we lose four or five more schools
Tears are not enough
I hope this was improved now. As a teenager, whom never experienced these things and things like this do not occur in my country at least during my time as a child, this was how I was introduced to the US.
I realise my deep interest in American Politics came from all the music I grew up listening to, hearing all these musicians tell stories of their own perception of the US they lived in which was really quite interesting about the problems.
Where were you in the US? Most of it isn't like that.
_____________________________
Government ranges from a necessary evil to an intolerable one. Thomas Paine
People don't believe they can defend themselves because they have guns, they have guns because they believe they can defend themselves.
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