A Half-Truth Is a Whole Lie

Lonely streets Empty factories all around Ghosts adrift, broken parking lots Beached moorings in our towns Fields overgrown, dead-end streets Echo silence day and night Fading memories replay Where vivid dreams took flight Feel a father's whisper Glimpse tears in shattered glass Can wounded places heal Will we find our way back A half-truth is a whole lie Do we really hear from both sides A half-truth is a whole lie Do we see how closed minds divide Drove to the factory Crossed enraged picket lines A stunned son of 16 I couldn't read the signs Dad parked somewhere outback We felt safe now from attack Was that your friend Jack Who kicked our car, I asked He sighed, managers get stuck Between different points of view But life's not black OR white One-sided stories aren't all true A half-truth is a whole lie Do we really hear from both sides A half-truth is a whole lie Do we see how closed minds divide So many factories Fallen bricks now gather dust All those futures canceled Blinded by broken trust Dad lost it all, slid into hell A deep, dark depression Shuffled round our house Lost in his own recession One summer day, I wasn't home To see him grab that knife Dad tore a hole in my soul The day the night took his light Lessons of hope can spring From the pain of winter's past History is not destiny When scars blaze new paths We've climbed so many mountains Gazed at fog's veil from above Hear our fathers' prayer For town and country loved Half-truths are whole lies Now's the time to hear from both sides Half-truths are whole lies Here's how open minds multiply Nations die by suicide too Papercuts every day So tune out that biased media Prevent truth's decay Lower your drawbridge Invite outsiders in It takes each village, loving thy neighbors To be who we are again No differences will blind us If unity defines us Fallin half-truths lie in ruin When whole-truths rise in union