A More Perfect Union

(álbum: The Monitor - 2010)

Are we ready to go?

"From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some transatlantic giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe and Asia could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio River or set a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live forever, or die by suicide."

[Abraham Lincoln, address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, IL, January 1838]

There'll be no more counting the cars on the Garden State Parkway
Nor waiting for the Fung Wah bus to carry me to who-knows-where
And when I stand tonight neath the lights of the Fenway
Will I not yell like hell for the glory of the Newark Bears

Cause where I'm going to now, no one can ever hurt me
Where the well of human hatred is shallow and dry
No, I never wanted to change the world, but I'm looking for a new New Jersey
Cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to die

I'm doing 70 on 17, I'm doing 80 over 84
And I never let the Merritt Parkway magnetize me no more
Give me a brutal Somerville summer, give me a cruel New England winter
Give me the great Pine Barrens so I can see them turned into splinters

Cause if I come in on a donkey, let me go out on a gurney
I want to realize too late I never should have left New Jersey

I sense the enemy
They're rustling around in the trees
Oh, I thought I'd gotten away
But they followed me to 02143

Woe, woe is me
No one knows the trouble I see
When they hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree
I'll sit beneath the leaves and weep

None of us shall be saved
Every man will be a slave
For John Brown's body lies a-mouldring in the grave
And there's rumbling down in the caves

So if it's time for choosing sides
And to show this dirty city how we do the Jersey Slide
And if it deserves a better class of criminal
Then I'm-a give it to them tonight

So we'll rally around the flag, rally around the flag
Rally around the flag, boys, rally once again
Shouting the Battle Cry of Freedom
Rally around the flag, rally around the flag
Glory, glory, hallelujah, his truth is marching on

"I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation. I am in earnest. I will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard."