Now the Government has lost our trust
And the magnates who never agree
I'd give it all away if they would only see
There's more than one way to be all that you can be

Called a coward when I turned a cheek
But I won't fight for the life they seek
I want no part of their world if it is remade
Men proudly taking lives and waiting to get paid

Somewhere in a computer file
A statistic is all that I am
While on their chart and multicolored diagram
I may not have much but I'm happy who I am

So don't ever let your dreams escape
Or let anyone take them away
Don't measure them in terms of how much they may pay
Or you may be judged for the dreams that you betray

07/04/1987

Author's Note: Considering I wrote this 18 years ago, it reads like something I could easily have written during the GW Bush years. Though if I had written it during his administration, I would have changed the line "Men proudly taking lives and waiting to get paid" to relate to the Commander In Chief in stead of the soldiers in the military. Over the years I have come to realize that the Universal Soldier is not to blame. Those who join the military do so to defend their country. They have no control over those who have the power to use them in ways that were never intended. And the consequences of disobeying orders are many and far reaching in their lives and their families lives. The only dishonor to the soldiers is using them in a dishonorable way.

Posted on 10/09/2005
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