Union Songs

A Song For Peace

- [play]

A song by Teresa Healy©2005 Teresa Healy

Chorus:
We're singing for peace we're singing solidarity
Singing for courage Singing down walls
We'll sing without fear and before all authority
singing as darkness falls

As I walked along, one foggy grey morning,
the cares of the world weighed on my mind
The headlines they said there were fortythree dead,
and I thought of their loved ones behind

And we're singing for peace...

How can we turn this thing over?
Who has to make up their mind?
Raise your hand in a fist
You'll end up on a list
While the leaders go on with their war crimes

And we're singing for peace...

Some take a stand as a witness to suffering
Do all they can to get in the way
Believe to the core in a world without war
And live to bring peace in our day

And we're singing for peace...

Notes

Many thanks to Teresa Healy for permission to add this song to the Union Songs website.

In March 2006 Teresa wrote:
'Today we awoke to the terrible news of the death of Tom Fox, peaceful activist, seeker of justice, and loved by many. Tom had been held hostage for over 100 days together with his friends Norman Kember, Jim Loney and Harmeet Sooden. The four human rights workers had been in Iraq as part the Christian Peacemakers Teams (CPT), and were documenting the abuses faced by those detained by the Occupation forces in Iraq when they disappeared.

The war in Iraq has ripped families apart and devastated lives. At present, over 14,000 people are being held without charges. CPT continues its work to end the occupation and militarization of Iraq. They are tireless in their call for the end of the occupation, respect for the human rights for the Iraqi detainees, and the release of the Peacemakers.

A melody kept coming back to me out of dreams last December. It circled around fear for the disappeared, anger at the powers-that-be, and hope in our collective resistance. So, on Christmas Eve, I put down some words in honour of all who try, like CPT, to “get in the way” of injustice.

This is song is for Tom, for Norman, for Jim and for Harmeet. This song is for all the detained and disappeared, for their loved ones and comrades, and for all of us who stand against the illegal and unjust attack on Iraq, including the U.S. war resisters who should be allowed to stay in Canada Three years after the invasion, the whole world knows this immoral occupation must end.

I am grateful for the generosity of so many who brought this song into the world. My deepest thanks go to Tom Juravich, James Stephens, Roberta Huebener, Chris MacLean, and Chris Lawson for their solidarity, creativity and commitment.'

Visit Teresa's website at http://www.teresahealy.ca/

Find more of Teresa's work in this collection

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union songs..........a selection by mark gregory