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Open the Records

from Out of the Fertile Crescent by Ballydowse

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The words of Archbishop Oscar Romero two weeks before his death from The Violence of Love: "The Church in Latin America has much to say about humanity. It looks at the sad picture portrayed by the Puebla conference: faces of landless peasants, mistreated and killed by the forces of power, faces of laborers arbitrarily dismissed and without a living wage for their families, faces of the elderly, faces of outcasts, faces of slum dwellers, faces of poor children who from infancy begin to feel the cruel sting of social injustice. For them, it seems, there is no future—no school, no high school, no university. By what right have we cataloged persons as first-class persons or second-class persons? In the theology of human nature, there is only one class: children of God."

lyrics

And they walk a thousand miles south
And they wear our gags upon their mouths
Yet they will rise, with dignity and grace
Open the records, shine a light in secret places
And finally the world will see Guatemala
Behold the marks upon her Mayan daughters

Seed the earth between the anvil and the hammer
The generals and the wealthy flew the same bloody banner
You offered them as martyrs but that was not your right
God's instruments of change sometimes walk beneath our sight
Indeed to take up violence can be the worst of votes
But before you criticize spend the night inside their booths

On him they spent their rage yet never did he speak
No safe house was given up, a dam that would not leak
He held your filthy torrents till you finally put him down
Her love let loose the waters but it's you who will be drowned
You will never understand how the truth can pass thru bars
It flies above the night and writes the names upon the stars

100 cigarette burns like maps upon her back
Led home to Washington by the strings of the attack
Look into her eyes the crazy isn't there
It's in the embassies and palaces filling every chair
This northern land is ours, for us judgment starts here
If indeed we fed the death squads our repentance should be dear

Master Mine look to the south
Open your ears and close your mouth
We turn the river and thank our gods
They fight the thirst against all odds
No more, no more the cry comes drifting back
Are grey skies growing lighter or will they fade to black?

credits

from Out of the Fertile Crescent, released July 1, 2000

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Ballydowse Chicago, Illinois

Ballydowse is a folk punk band that sang of social and economic injustice.

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