Knock on any door And you may hear the cries Of children, deep within a house, Whose parents smile at you With that eroded grin we all know Like the stony leer of a gargoyle. And yet you can do nothing. Not yet…
Visit any friend at their house And hear the silent pleas Of a wife and mother Who endures the fear and pain For reasons the mystify us. At least now.
Walk the floor of any factory or boardroom And you will see the man who bows to his master While, at home, he treats his family as slaves.
Visit the mansion of any president, Minister or king And you may see the ragged masses Of those who built the walls yet have no home, Who work the farms and have no food, Who tend a country and are refugees.
Thus, in the cry of any child, The fear in a mother’s face or Silent rage in a worker-slave Or immigrant dispossessed And you will see the tyrants who rule, The fathers who strike and bosses who fire,
Yet all of these serve one master With many names: Property, Greed, Violence, Primeval rank and… Power.
To this power, There is only one answer And to alleviate the suffering, of those oppressed, Only one thing.
The title comes from a film about an idealistic man trying to help youthful offenders in the 1950's. He sees the larger picture: these troubles arise not in a vacuum but as a result of a corrupt and broken society. I say that civilization itself fits this description when we ask why people suffer.