Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-23782751-20140528024550/@comment-8992692-20140807172344

L377UC3 wrote: DMR4LIFE wrote: And STARS, speaking of that new Rise Against Album, this is probably my favorite song from it, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHIF5506JsY. It's a pretty powerful song when you listen to the lyrics. I know Rise Against probably intended for you to think of Sandy Hook, and the various prejudices and squables among the religious, but the entire time I couldn't help but think of places like Syria, Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan. Places where the madness has overtaken and "People Lived Here"

I remember meeting two kids who were completely catatonic the entire time we were with them, who looked at us like we were horrifying, yet couldn't take a step to run or even look away for a second. I met families who didn't know where their fathers and husbands were. I met families who didn't know where their children were. I saw shrapnel victims and war wounded. I heard stories about the agregious acts of "the good guys," and stories of the righteous acts of "the bad guys," and vice versa. And People live there, in fear.

And people live here in luxury, freaking the heck out when the slightest thing happens to make them feel unsafe. When the dozens of innocents die and the country mourns. While hundreds of innocents die and people can't even find that spot on a map. People live here. And that's the point of their song... and a lot of their other songs. Music is supposed to take us on a journey, but the same song is not the same for two people.

I hear this song and I think about how here in America, we like think we are high and mighty and we aren't. We've got own problems yet we try to fix other people's problems first. The line "Are your hands so clean?" reminds me that while we do try and do good, are we really doing what's best?

Take what is going on in Israel, Ukraine, The Middle East, Africa, and so on. No matter what side your own, what beliefs you have, it has to make you sick that we have all this senseless violence going on in the world. All because people cannot see eye to eye, they make everything an "Us vs. Them" scenario.