Pacifist's Lament

There's many ways

To say you're sorry

Home from work, buy some flowers

Wash dry, put the dishes away

There's a gentle way

For a hand to touch a hand

For a cup of tea

People livin' doing night stands

For light to be left on

To light someone's way

But there is nothing harder

Than to stop I the middle of a battle

And say you're sorry

But we ask it of our children

To just stop in the middle of a battle

And say you're sorry

Each one of us, is ready

To just stop

There's many ways

To see life leave us

Don't seem hindsight is always the clearest

When the fighters and the flighters

Have gone back to their primeval caves

You can try to undo

Or condition and create it

You can go to India

And you can sit cross-legged

You can walk to the ocean

And drown yourself in the waves

But there is nothing harder

Than to stop I the middle of a battle

And say you're sorry

But we ask it of our children

To just stop in the middle of a battle

And say you're sorry

Each one of us, is ready

To just stop

If I had a school

I would teach Gandhi and Dr. King

And Aung San Suu Kyi

I'd teach techniques of non-violence

As part of the course

'Cause any kid can add two and two

If you show him a path to the truth

Monkey see, monkey do

That is the saying

And there is nothing harder

Than to stop I the middle of a battle

And say you're sorry

But we ask it of our children

To just stop in the middle of a battle

And say you're sorry

Each one of us, is ready

To just stop