Work For Peace

Work For Peace

By Gil Scott-Herron
Information Clearing House
December 20, 2013

Back when Eisenhower was the President,
Golf courses was where most of his time was spent.

So I never really listened to what the President said,
Because in general I believed that the General was
politically dead.

But he always seemed to know when the muscles were about to
be flexed, Because I remember him saying something, mumbling
something about a Military Industrial Complex.

Americans no longer fight to keep their shores safe,
Just to keep the jobs going in the arms making workplace.

Then they pretend to be gripped by some sort of political reflex,
But all they're doing is paying dues to the Military Industrial Complex.

The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary.

The Military and the Monetary,
Get together whenever they think its necessary,
They turn our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,

They are turning the planet into a cemetery.

The Military and the Monetary,
Use the media as intermediaries,
They are determined to keep the citizens secondary,
They make so many decisions that are arbitrary.

We're marching behind a commander in chief,
Who is standing under a spotlight shaking like a leaf.

But the ship of state had landed on an economic reef,
So we knew he was going to bring us messages of grief.

The Military and the Monetary,
Were shielded by January and went storming into February,
Brought us pot bellied generals as luminaries,
Two weeks ago I hadn't heard of the son of a bitch,
Now all of a sudden he's legendary.

They took the honor from the honorary,
They took the dignity from the dignitaries,
They took the secrets from the secretary,
But they left the bitch in obituary.

The Military and the Monetary,
From thousands of miles away in a Saudi Arabian sanctuary,
Had us all scrambling for our dictionaries,
Cause we couldn't understand the fucking vocabulary.

Yeah, there was some smart bombs,
But there was some dumb ones as well,
Scared the hell out of CNN in that Baghdad hotel.

The Military and the Monetary,
They get together whenever they think its necessary,
War in the desert sometimes sure is scary,
But they beamed out the war to all their subsidiaries.

Tried to make So Damn Insane a worthy adversary,
Keeping the citizens secondary,
Scaring old folks into coronaries.

The Military and the Monetary,
From thousands of miles in a Saudi Arabian sanctuary,
Kept us all wondering if all of this was really truly, necessary.

We've got to work for Peace,
Peace ain't coming this way.

If we only work for Peace,
If everyone believed in Peace the way they say they do,
We'd have Peace.

The only thing wrong with Peace,
Is that you can't make no money from it.

The Military and the Monetary,
They get together whenever they think its necessary,
They've turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
They are turning the planet, into a cemetery.

Got to work for Peace,
Peace ain't coming this way.

We should not allow ourselves to be mislead,
By talk of entering a time of Peace,
Peace is not the absence of war,
It is the absence of the rules of war and the threats of war
and the preparation for war.

Peace is not the absence of war,
It is the time when we will all bring ourselves closer to each other,
Closer to building a structure that is unique within ourselves
Because we have finally come to Peace within ourselves.

The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary.

Get together whenever they think its necessary,
They've turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
They are turning parts of the planet, into a cemetery.

The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary,
We hounded the Ayatollah religiously,
Bombed Libya and killed Quadafi's son hideously.

We turned our back on our allies the Panamanians,
And saw Ollie North selling guns to the Iranians.

Watched Gorbachev slaughtering Lithuanians,
We better warn the Amish,
They may bomb the Pennsylvanians.

The Military and the Monetary,
Get together whenever they think its necessary,
They have turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
They are turning the planet, into a cemetery.

I don't want to sound like no late night commercial,
But its a matter of fact that there are thousands of children all over
the world in Asia and Africa and in South America who need our help.

When they start talking about 55 cents a day and 70 cents a day,
I know a lot of folks feel as though,
That's not really any kind of contribution to make,
But we had to give up a dollar and a half just to get in the
subway nowadays.

So this is a song about tomorrow and about how tomorrow
can be better.

If we all, Each one reach one, Each one try to teach one.

Nobody can do everything,
But everybody can do something,
Everyone must play a part,
Everyone got to go to work, Work for Peace.

Spirit Say Work, Work for Peace
If you believe the things you say, go to work.

If you believe in Peace, time to go to work.

Can't be wavin your head no more, go to work.



Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011) was an
American soul and jazz poet,musician, and author, known primarily
for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and '80s.

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