It's timely to re-post this song by Jackson Browne.

It's called "Lives in the Balance."

"There are Lives in the Balance...

And they sell us the president the same way they sell us our cars..."

It's one of the few songs I've ever sung -and played- publicly, in the pursuit of Peace...

"Ive been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear

You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that youve seen it before
When a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war
And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs

On the radio talk shows and the t.v.
You hear one thing again and again
How the U.S.A. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends
--These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can't take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone

There are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire...

There's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
We can't even say the names...

They sell us the president the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us every thing from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they're never the ones to fight or to die

And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire..."

And I think of Utah Phillips, quoting Ammon Hannessey,
Saying "Pick dead people as your heroes, since they can't let you down,"
Which I mention because of that photo of Jackson wearing an Obama for president pin,
Hearing phrases like "Clean Coal," "Safe Nuclear Power," and "Troop Surge in Afghanistan,"
Being spoken by Mr. Obama...