Hallowed Ground

It takes more than waving a flag Or the worn words sunk into the land To be the very thing you identify as The reactionary led astray from their class Your heroes of old sought to progress Not to stagnate the winds that they met Yet here you stand to restore and protect A vision of the past, a fantasy at best We cannot accept the freedom to own As much of the world as power will hold We cannot rely on handouts alone Where is the system guaranteeing our home? How can we pretend this is as good as it will get? Yet another, another, another, another band-aid resolve Avoiding the flaws Ignoring our faults & wrongdoings Does not restore our purity It casts us as the proverbial foe That once had wisdom before trampling the world Our greatness has faded, respect resigned Destruction elated, repression consigned We are the ruling tyrants today But with a new mask & a global prey This is where irony divides The fabled past & today's obliged You say the foreign violence is justified Until it's in your home street tonight ​You say the foreign violence justifies Until it's in your home street tonight