Work For Peace
Gil Scott-Heron
Spirits, 1994

In my ongoing passive protest to the war and all things bush, I bring you “Work For Peace” which is from the Iraq war prequal. But not much has changed, not even the names…and G. S. H. is here to give us the sobering reminder that war is a lot of people’s job and they are not making minimum wage and us having a strong feeling about how things should go is not enough.

“They got folks out there workin’ for war…You gotta work for peace, peace ain’t comin’ this way.”

::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: :::

Back when Eisenhower was the President
Golf courses was where most of his time was spent
So I never really listened to what the President said
Because in general I believed that the General was politically dead
But he always seemed to know when the muscles were about to be flexed
Because I remember him saying something, mumbling something about a Military Industrial Complex

Americans no longer fight to keep their shores safe
Just to keep the jobs going in the arms making workplace
But then they pretend to be gripped by some sort of political reflex
But all they’re doing is paying dues to the Military Industrial Complex

The Military and the Monetary
The Military and the Monetary
The Military and the Monetary

The Military and the Monetary
Get together whenever they think its necessary
They turn our brothers and sisters into mercenaries
They are turning the planet…into a cemetery

The Military and the Monetary
Use the media as an intermediary
They are determined to keep the citizens secondary
They make so many decisions that are arbitrary

We’re marching behind a commander in chief
Who is standing under a spotlight shaking like a leaf
But the ship of state had landed on an economic reef
So we knew he was going to bring us messages of grief

The Military and the Monetary
Were shielded by January and went storming into February
Brought us pot bellied generals as luminaries
Two weeks ago I hadn’t heard of the son of a bitch
Now all of a sudden - he’s legendary

They took the honour from the honourary
They took the dignity from the dignitaries
They took the secrets from the secretary
But they left the bitch…in obituary

The Military and the Monetary
From thousands of miles away in a Saudi Arabian sanctuary
Had us all scrambling for our dictionaries
Cause we couldn’t understand the fuckin’ vocabulary

Yeah, there was some smart bombs
But there was some dumb ones as well
Scared the hell out of CNN in that Baghdad hotel

The Military and the Monetary
They get together whenever they think its necessary
War in the desert sometimes sure is scary
But they beamed out the war to all their subsidiaries
Tried to make So-Damn Insane a worthy adversary
Keeping the citizens secondary
Scaring old folks into coronaries

The Military and the Monetary
From thousands of miles in a Saudi Arabian sanctuary
Kept us all wondering if all of this was really truely necessary

We’ve got to work for peace
Peace ain’t coming this way

If we only work for peace-
If everyone believed in peace the way they say they do
We’d have peace
The only thing wrong with peace…
Is that you can’t make no money from it

The Military and the Monetary
They get together whenever they think its necessary
They’ve turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries
They are turning the planet, into a cemetery

Got to work for peace
Peace ain’t coming this way

We should not allow ourselves to be mislead by talk of entering a time of peace
Peace is not the absence of war
It is the absence of the rumors of war
And the threats of war
And the preparation for war

Peace is not the absence of war
It is the time when we will all bring ourselves closer to each other
Closer to building a structure that is unique within ourselves
Because we have finally come to peace within ourselves

The Military and the Monetary
The Military and the Monetary
The Military and the Monetary

Get together whenever they think its necessary
They have turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries
They are turning parts of the planet, into a cemetery

The Military and the Monetary
The Military and the Monetary

We hounded the Ayatollah religiously
Bombed Libya and killed Quadafi’s son hideously
We turned our back on our allies the Panamanians
And saw Ollie North selling guns to the Iranians
Watched Gorbachev slaughtering Lithuanians
We better warn the Amish
They may bomb the Pennsylvanians

The Military and the Monetary
Get together whenever they think its necessary
They have turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries
They are turning the planet, into a cemetery

(adlibs)

I don’t want to sound like no late night commercial but its a matter of fact that there are thousands of children all over the world in Asia and Africa and in South America who need our help.
When they start talking about 55 cents a day and 70 cents a day, I know a lot of folks feel as though thats not really any kind of contribution to make but we had to give up a dollar and a half just to get in the subway nowadays.
So this is a song about tomorrow and about how tomorrow can be better if we all, ‘Each one reach one, Each one try to teach one.’
Nobody can do everything but everybody can do something.
Everyone must play a part, everyone got to go to work…work for peace.
Spirit say work, work for peace.

If you believe the things you say, go to work
If you believe in peace, time to go to work
Cant be wavin’ your head no more, go to work…
Everything you ever really wanted…gotta go to work.

>> songs are available for two weeks [10.5 MB]

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