Pacifist's Lament - Ani DiFranco

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 to be delivered to a nightstand

For a light to be left on, to light someone’s way

But there is nothing harder than to stop…

…in 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

Which one of us is ready to just stop?

There’s many ways, to see my fears

Don’t it seem hindsight is always the clearest?

When the fighters and the flighters have gone back to their primeval gaze

You can try to undo what conditioning created

You can go to India and sit cross legged

You can walk to the ocean and drown yourself in the waves

But there is nothing harder than to stop…

…in 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

Which 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 core

'cause any kid can add two and two

If you show him a path to the truth

Monkey see, monkey do.

That is the score

But there is nothing harder than to stop…

…in 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

Which one of us is ready to just stop?