I was driving to work today listening to my latest CD purchase, The Very Best of Jackson Browne, when the song “Lives In The Balance” came on. Jackson Browne was inspired to write that song by the political events of the Iran-Contra scandal in the mid 1980’s. As I listened to the lyrics I was struck by how a song written 18 years ago was so appropriate for today. In particular, the final verse is especially relevant for 2004.

They sell us the President the same way,
They sell us our clothes and our cars.
They sell us every thing from youth to religion,
The same time they sell us our wars.
I want to know who the men in the shadows are.
I want to hear somebody asking them why,
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are,
But they’re never the ones to fight or to die.
And there are lives in the balance.
There are people under fire.
There are children at the cannons.
And there is blood on the wire.