Not In My Name

Lately I've been losing all my faith in humanity And to think I am a part of it's embarrassing I read the paper and I keep up with the news I can't recognise what we do as even human It's out of wack, out of balance, out of control The lies told and the attitude that unfold This fucking country has a rotten bitter hard soul These are laws of the land that the Crown stole I hear them talk, talk, talking on the radio They spit fever pitch panic on what they oppose I read the columns, the letters and opinion pieces At every pub everybody's got prepared speeches Misunderstanding all the pain in the politics They only want a scapegoat and kept promises And all the anger and the feat and resentment grows The brutality of lucky country village folk It's not enough to turn back a bunch of leaky boats It's not enough to kill their dreams then we kill their hope It's not enough to deprive them of their human rights It's not enough, until somebody loses their life Dark shadows gather history will judge us hard One day you'll ask yourself "did I do enough?" And how much cruelty did we allow to be dealt To a group of desperate people asking for some help How does it sit with you? How do you sleep at night? Does it worry you at all occupy your mind? I hang my head, heavy heart, I am so ashamed It's in my backyard, but not in my name The journalists gather, the cameras click clack And at the podium the speaker's putting on his act He talks in double speak, Orwellian reports Empty words but his body language says it all His hands are outstretched, now his arms are crossed His white face sweats bullets and he nods a lot Official press release, massive face omissions The purpose so clear - dehumanise the victims Appoint an expert, launch enquiries Pass the buck, obfuscation by any means He answers all the questions with the party line Repeats the focus group emotion heavy catch cries He knows his audience, and how to handle them Talk tough, keep it simple, act the larrikin Make them think that your one of them just like a mate Repeat the sentiment - "ain't this fucking country great" Now he's hit his stride, he's got them hypnotised Convince them of a threat to their very way of life And now the lights fade and he walks away He played it perfectly to keep the power one more day The sun beats down hot upon a prison camp A family huddles in a tent with no ceiling fan The days roll in to each other in the worst way A young boy celebrates his 9th birthday At night he hears people weeping it's a common sound He's used to to seeing things he saw his sister drown He wonders if it's real, he wonders who to trust His mum and dad are like ghosts they don't talk too much He kicks a soccer ball in an empty field One of the guards kicks it back and compliments his skill The boy tells the guard "I turned nine today" The guard smiles, stops, then he looks away He says "Little man one day I hope you understand When you're older and your dignity is still intact And you look back at this vicious treatment Not all were complicit, not all were indecent"