breathonthewater

This is one of the songs from the work in progress which I will be sharing in a live performance that will be given April 1st, 2017 at 2:00 pm at the Gates Auditorium at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor Maine.

“Who Owns the Future?”

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy! Hey! Hey! Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! [2x]

 

A company with a charter

finds a person, place, or thing

and they pay protection money

to put it on a registry

and they call it a discovery

whose profits go to them

unmolested by competitors

who collude in this property system

while the people, places, things and spirits

who had found themselves long before

go misnamed, unrecognized and stolen.

 

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy! Hey! Hey! Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! [2x]

 

If you get a word wrong on a welfare form

your rights can be denied.

If you fail to heed a warning

the police can shoot to take your life.

If an addicted kid steals a pack of cigarettes

he can be sent to Juvenile.

But for a company that is big enough

to commit an enormous crime

– to addict a generation or commit cultural genocide —

there are many ways it can make it pay

for the police and state to take its side.

 

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy! Hey! Hey! Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! [2x]

 

They can pass and enforce the needed laws

that give ownership to thieves

and leave the people, places, things and spirits

stolen, without appeal,

assigning a statutory right

that gives powers to the strong

and leaves the victims of their crimes

in violation of the law.

 

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy! Hey! Hey! Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! [2x]

 

But there’s always the appeal to the power of the mind

and the power of the people to stand up and deny

the crazy fictions would be tyrants use to intimidate

— those crazy lies they use to tie violent threat to authority.

And there’s the appeal to hope and the appeal to love

and the appeal to folks around us and when push comes to shove

we can speak united truth to the lonely power of the gun

and insist on changing the rules that are wrong in this new millennium.

 

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy! Hey! Hey! Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! [2x]

 

Rule number one is simple:

Every child owns the things she or he needs to thrive — food, shelter, clothing, education, health care, a family free of violence, an environment secure.

And the second rule is just as basic:

Any person, policy or institution that stands in the way of keeping the first rule has to be changed.

 

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy! Hey! Hey! Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! [2x]