Over There

How can we complain
That our lives are unfair
When we don't have to suffer
What they do over there.

They're fleeing their houses
And their homelands too
What right do we have
To mope around like we do.

'Things have changed' people cry
As others live in fear
Struggling to survive while we yell
'Prices are too dear!

Why can't the economy
Go back to how it was?'
Well, I don't think we're in Kansas
And this certainly ain't Oz.

But neither do we lack for
Anything our bodies need
Food and warmth and shelter
Bandages for if we bleed

'But they've taken away our freedom!'
Cry the people with the guns
While somewhere else a twelve year old
Fights a jihad - his father's son.

How can we not sleep at night
Because of a blockage in the sink
When somewhere else a small child dies
From no fresh water to drink

Somewhere else a baby dies
Of dysentary or AIDS
While over here a child will cry
For toys or rollerblades

How dare we wallow in apathy
When bombs are falling every day
On innocents in the wrong place, wrong time
How can we think it's okay?

How can we continue
On this self-destructive path
How can we sweep it under the rug
And then just take a bath?

In this age of information
People fidget and cough
When a thousand people die
In a land far off.

Why should we bemoan our fate
Of dying old or poor?
When so many children over there
Get no chance to live at all.

Please remember that it was never said
That life was meant to be fair
And remember how much better off
You are than those over there.

evk 2002