From the Salmon

In the weeks after September 11, we had the opportunity to see David Wilcox perform at an intimate venue in Davis, CA. I remember in those weeks feeling a more palpable sense of connection with total strangers — of shared lives and shared futures — than I had before or have since. That atmosphere made this particular concert truly special.

The sense of fellowship began outside, as Mr. Wilcox wandered out into the parking lot before the show and played some songs for those of us waiting in line. And it continued onstage as he shared with us his reactions to the recent tragedy.

He had just finished writing a song and a spoken word piece that he performed, often referring to his notes as he had not yet memorized the words. Both were truly moving, and both seemed to fill a hole in the room that no one wanted to acknowledge.

Neither has been released, but you can hear an mp3 of the song (appropriately titled “September 12") by going here.

As I process yesterday’s bombings, I thought I’d revisit the words to Wilcox’s spoken word piece, even though reading them now doesn’t quite do justice to the experience of hearing them then, particularly in that remarkable atmosphere. (Also, the rhyme scheme sounded a lot better with his phrasing than it appears in print. You’ll just have to trust me on that.)

Anyhow....

“A Different Kind of War”
by David Wilcox (Unreleased)

There was a long haired guy who drew a crowd outside
He got them all angry over national pride
He was talking of the war that’s on our shore
And how we’ve never had to fight so hard before
It’s a war to fight and a war to win, he said
But how do we strike and where to begin?
We want to kill those guilty of the crimes they’ve made
But they don’t live in one city; there’s no fortress to invade

This war is psychological and it starts right here
So in my defiance, I will not live in fear
Because fear is their weapon so I won’t give in to that
They know that fear turns to rage, and that’s just their trap
The way they win is to make us strike back
They want us to launch a dreadful counterattack
The more people that die at the hand of our nation
The more hate it will breed in the next generation

In this kind of war, they’re not after our land
They want their children’s blood on our vengeful hands
They want to make us act like an angry mob
So we look like a bully that hates their god
Their plan is to hurt us with our own brute force
Like a herd stampeding down a deadly course
If they can get us running with a rage like this
They can lead the free world off the edge of a cliff
And the cliff is to fall for the trap they’ve sprung
To make us play the role of the vengeful one

They want us to chase them and hunt them down
To kill their people and burn their towns
The few guilty people are happy to die
If they can make us kill a few thousand more besides
Because the death of the innocents just fuels the flame
Until the next war starts and it’s all the same
And the future unfolds for a hundred years
As the terror grows and it breeds more fear
So who will decide the future of our nation?
Will we follow along with their invitation?

The invitation is to trust our hate
To let revenge define our fate
To never see that it’s a different war
And we can’t fight the same way we fought before
We’re not hunted by a tiger, or a lion or a shark, it’s more
Like FIRE that’s the danger and the enemy’s a spark

But the trickiest spin that the devil could twist
Was convincing the world that he didn’t exist
If you don’t believe in evil, then they’re just dangerous men
And you’ll fight fire with fire, and you’ll be just like them
An eye for an eye, time after time
Eye after eye until the whole world is blind

If our enemy is evil, like a virus of the mind
And it’s moving through the body of all humankind
Then the evil brilliance of this virus which is hate
Is that our natural reaction makes it replicate
We want to shoot at a target that’s easy to find
But the enemy is in us — all humankind
We want to kill the invader like we could in the past
But you can’t kill a virus with a shotgun blast

This is not a nation that we’re up against
If it’s good against evil what’s our best defense?

The man on the street was drawing a crowd
Some people got angry and voices got loud
The crowd answered back to the sidewalk guy
That we must have revenge for the people that died
But the man kept talking about love and light
As if that were any way to fight the fight
And a scuffle started and they hauled him in
He was convicted of crimes and convicted of sins
And for national safety and religious pride
That sidewalk preacher was crucified

© 2001 David Wilcox
(note: I added a few “stanza” breaks to make it easier to read)