Jackson Browne - Lives In The Balance lyrics

I've been waiting for something to happen<br>For a week or a month or a year<br>With the blood in the ink of the headlines<br>And the sound of the crowd in my ear<br>You might ask what it takes to remember<br>When you know that you've seen it before<br>Where a government lies to a people<br>And a country is drifting to war<br><br>And there's a shadow on the faces<br>Of the men who send the guns<br>To the wars that are fought in places<br>Where their business interest runs<br><br>On the radio talk shows and the t.v.<br>You hear one thing again and again<br>How the u.s.a. stands for freedom<br>And we come to the aid of a friend<br>But who are the ones that we call our friends--<br>These governments killing their own? <br>Or the people who finally can't take any more<br>And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone<br>There are lives in the balance<br>There are people under fire<br>There are children at the cannons<br>And there is blood on the wire<br><br>There's a shadow on the faces<br>Of the men who fan the flames<br>Of the wars that are fought in places<br>Where we can't even say the names<br><br>They sell us the president the same way<br>They sell us our clothes and our cars<br>They sell us every thing from youth to religion<br>The same time they sell us our wars<br>I want to know who the men in the shadows are<br>I want to hear somebody asking them why<br>They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are<br>But they're never the ones to fight or to die<br>And there are lives in the balance<br>There are people under fire<br>There are children at the cannons<br>And there is blood on the wire