One of my favorite activist songs. Always reminds me of being in Tucson, the sun setting crimson over the jagged mountains and setting the cacti aglow with gold, and Amy and Marianna and the Owl and Panther kids.
I Have No Right
(I'm having trouble with some of these links through blogger, so here's the address if the link above doesn't work: http://darwilliams.net/music/audiofiles/IHaveNoRight.mp3)
2 comments:
Oh God.
I love this song.
I'm trying so hard not to weep here in the library computer lab.
Here's the lyrics.
----------------
God of the poor man this is how the day began
Eight codefendants, i, daniel berrigan
Oh and only a layman's batch of napalm
We pulled the draft files out
We burned them in the parking lot
Better the files than the bodies of children
I had no right but for the love of you
I had no right but for the love of you
Many roads led here, walked with the suffering
Tom in guatamala, phillip in new orleans
Oh it's a long road from law to justice
I went to vietnam, I went for peace
They dropped their bombs
Right where my government knew I would be
I had no right but for the love of you
I had no right but for the love of you
And all my country saw
Were priests who broke the law
First it was a question, then it was a mission
How to be american, how to be a christian
Oh if their law is their cross and the cross is burning
Aaaaaaaaah the love of you
Aaaaaaaaah the love of you
God of the just I'll never win a peace prize
Falling like jesus
Now let the jury rise
Oh it's all of us versus all that paper
They took the only way they know who is on trial today
Deliver us unto each other, I pray
I had no right but for the love of you
And every trial I stood, I stood for you
Eyes on the trial
8am arrival
Hands on the bible
-----------------------
Thank you, Alwen, for this song and for invoking dear Amy, dear Marianna. One of my favorite memories is driving with them to San Diego so that we could try to cross medical supplies across the border for Cuba with Pastors for Peace. We sang along with Sweet Honey in the Rock, and ate "farm worker" burritos, and lsitened to Amy tell stories about workking with Cesar Chavez.
And also all the years we did Holy Week and Holy Saturday celebrations at Old Yaqui.
And the times we just hung out at their house.
And how they loved my cielo when she finally arrived.
And working with them at the refugee clinic. how they loved everyone so much.
The icon of Romero I have in my carrell, that was Amy's. A gift to me from Marianna after Amy died.
So great a cloud of witnesses.
So great a cloud of witnesses.
Oh, and this. My friend Alexa told me that me and my cielo and daniel berrigan give her hope for the world.
me and my cielo and daniel berrigan.
must go somewhere and cry now.
Oh, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Wow. What beautiful memories. I knew Amy and Marianna for just a short period near the end of Amy's life, but they touched me so deeply. Amy appeared in a dream of mine a few months ago...the most vivid, hopeful dream I've ever had. May her spirit--the spirit of so many who have worked for justice--go before you. May they sustain you this week as you prep for trial.
Post a Comment