Anthem · Barking Justice Music
The Answer Is Us
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in our hands.
About this anthem
The Answer Is Us asks the question this country keeps circling instead of closing: why does the answer to injustice always seem to live decades in the past, and never in the present?
Verse by verse, this anthem updates the same warnings the protest era sang and America filed away unresolved: children still crying out for peace, skies still dark with smoke, walls still dividing streets, strangers still shivering at our doors. It is not asking listeners to remember the 1960s and 70s fondly. It is asking why those songs still describe the news.
It is featured on The Mirror of Conscience, Barking Justice Radio’s reckoning with why so many of the wounds named by the great protest era were never healed, and why poverty, sickness, prisons, and war became industries instead of problems we solved. This song makes the block’s core indictment personal: the answer was never going to echo back from the past on its own. It has to come from us, now.
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Streaming via SoundCloud. Full rotation airs on Barking Justice Radio.
Lyrics
Verse 1
How many lies must the truth stumble through before we believe again? How many rights taken in the night before we rise, defend? Yes, and how many hearts must break for hope before we call this the end?
Chorus
The answer, my friend, still echoes from the past. The answer still echoes from the past.
Verse 2
How many nights must a child cry out longing for peace to begin? How many skies must be dark with smoke before we let healing in? Yes, and how many flags thrown onto the fire before we sound the alarm?
Chorus
The answer, my friend, still echoes from the past. The answer still echoes from the past.
Verse 3
How many screens must a mind scroll past before it begins to see? How many walls must divide our streets before we admit we’re not free? Yes, and how many dreams must be lost to fear before we demand to be we? The answer, my friend, still echoes from the past. The answer still echoes from the past.
Verse 4
How many hearts turned cold by hate before you and I forgive? How many strangers shivering at our doors before we let kindness live? Yes, and how many wounds must bleed, year after year, before we’re brave enough to care? The answer, my friend, still echoes from the past. The answer still echoes from the past.
Verse 5
How many lines must we draw in the sand before we reach for a hand? How many voices must go unheard before together we stand? Yes, and how many times must we silence our voice before we remember our choice?
Final Chorus
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in our hands. The answer is blowin’ in our hands.
Spoken
I will not turn away. I will not be silent. The answer is us. Barking Justice Music. I will not sit back any longer, and I will not be afraid.
Related program
Segment Banner Song For
The Mirror of Conscience
Barking Justice Radio’s reckoning with the protest era of the 1960s and 70s, and an indictment of every wound those songs named that America never healed.
Tags
Listen live to more music like this — original protest anthems, playing around the clock on Barking Justice Radio.