Election Day
Footnote to this song... Arthur, mentioned below fought in Viet Nam. I ran into him three days ago. He was in a terrible state. His 23 year old son had just returned from active duty in Bhagdad. He was in an unreachable depression, as Arthur said the boy who left never came back. He is rethinking his calls for war...

Words Lorcan Otway tune traditional...all rights reserved...

Arthur and I, we went out very early...
so early in morning, before the dawning of the day
we went out to work the polls, we were feeling light and cheerful
And feeling as hopeful as we saw the sun's first ray


As we worked the bright sidewalks,
not long after the sun rise
we saw a plane fly o're so low we all did say
that we hoped all on board, would land somewhere in safety
and as we worked, each one of us did pray

Now what can the matter be, where are those cars going,
flashing lights and now ambulances as well,
and that look in all the faces, that spread from one to another
and then the story, too horrible to tell.

What of our loved ones, who work beneath those towers,
We watched a white cloud rise up in the cloudless sky
and we soon understood, that this cloud marked a pyre
Where so many of our neighbors, for madness would die

I walked through the streets, hearing only wailing sirens,
the gritty taste of gypsum, in my mouth and in my eye
And I saw the far off look in the eyes of all the people
as we watched the day unfold, and could only wonder why

Who ever can forget, the cry of hundreds of whistles
as oxygen tanks alarms, marked where the heroes lay
Each firefighter and police, who ran into such danger
in spite of the terror, that others might get away.

Now Arthur calls for war, and I still pray for peace
I can't believe that killing, will make us safe again
We can never end by killing, what killing has created
No war has ever ended wars, can this madness ever end?

Lets fire up cold furnaces in the steel mills of Bethlehem
out in Pennsylvania, in towns once built by steel,
and we'll reforge the girders, from the ruins of the towers
And raise a World Peace Center, this ruined world to heal.