Dear Jonathan:
You're a decent man and that's the truth. I wrote to you once back in 97 or thereabouts on gun control. Your website is absolutely one of the finest in the Net, and long may it send its message of clear-eyed compassion out into a world scourged with lies.
Anyway, I thought you might like to see this. I wrote it last night in a bar here in Shanghai. I bet a mate of mine who's a guitarist there that I would write a song on anything he wanted in 20 min.s and he said Israel and Palestine. The photo of the baby in your main article this month was the inspiration for the title and one of the verses so I worked a little more on it today and thought I'd send you a copy. Having won the bet (17 mins 36 secs) I now get to have free guitar lessons from my friend as well ;)
What can we do with a people Who hate themselves too much to live? What can we do with such people Who have nothing more left to give? Than have a girl strap a bomb to her body And calmly walk into a shop And there's nothing now left in her heart and her soul But the thought of how many she'll drop. Allah; Jehovah - whatever was God Has gone;or at least turned his face And pictures of babies in semtex pajamas Are what we have left in His place. Is something possibly coming our way That forgiveness and time won't Erase? If you cut someone do they not bleed? Jew Christian or Mohommedan: They all look the same when they're scraped off the walls Or from under a 1000 lb bomb. What do we do with a people Who hate themselves too much to live? What can we do with such people Who've nothing but this left to give? Come look at these tiny dead bodies Brought courtesy of CNN And then fumble to find the remote to flick over to Sex in the City or Friends We're surrounded by lies and illusion We forget; getting on with our lives That for each of us now staying silent There'll be one less of them left alive. As long as we suffer these monsters These bloodsoaked, bitter old men; The evil our grandfathers died to defy is back with a vengeance again. What do we do with a people Who hate themselves too much to live? What can we do with such people Who've nothing but this left to give? "We're not gonna take it / NO! We ain't goona taaaake it / We're not going to take it / Anymore."
28 July 2002 copyright John O'Driscoll (excepting last verse which is AC/DC)