Medley: Matthew / Let Us Begin (What Are We Making Weapons For?)

I had an uncle named Matthew

He was his father's only boy

Born just south of Colby, Kansas

He was his mother's pride and joy

Yes and Joy was just a thing that he was Ray's dog

Love was just a way to live and die

Gold was just a win to Kansas we feed

Blue was just the Kansas summer sky

All the stories that he told me

Back when i was just a lad

All the memories that he gave me

All the good times that he had

Now growing up a Kansas farm boy

Life is mostly havin fun

Riding on his daddy's shoulders

Behind a mule beneath the sun

Guess and joy was just a thing he was raised on Love

Was just a way to live and die

Gold was just to win the Kansas wheat field

Blue was just the Kansas well

I am the son of a grassland farmer

Western Oklahoma 1943

I always felt grateful to live in the land of the free

I gave up my father to South Korea

The mind of my brother to Vietnam

Now there's a banker who says

I must give up my land

There are four generations of blood in this top soil

Four generations of love on this farm

Before I give up I would gladly give up my bright heart

What are we making weapons for? Why keep on feeding the war machine?

We take it right out of the mouths of our babies we take it away

From the hands of the poor, tell me, what were we making weapons for?

Well, I guess there were some hard times

And i'm told some years were lean, they had a storm in 47

Twister came and stripped them clean

He lost the farm and lost his family

He lost the wheat and lost his home

But he found the family Bible

Faith as solid as a stone

And i had a son and my son was a soldier

He was so like my father he was so much like me

To be a good comrade was the best that he dreamed he could be

He gave up his future to revolution

His life to a battle that's rarely been won

This is not living to live at the point of a gun

I remember the 900 days of Leningrad

The sound of the dying the cut of the cold

I remember the moments, i prayed I would never grow

Old what are we making weapons for?

Why keep on feeding the war machines?

We take it right out of the mouths of our babies

Take it away from the hands of the poor

Tell me what are we making weapons for?

For the first time in my life I feel like a prisoner

(A slave to the ways of the powers that be

And I fear for my children as I fear for the future I see)

Tell me how can it be we're still fighting each other?

What does it take for a people to learn?

If our song is not sung as a chorus we surely will burn

And so I write this down for Matthew

And it's for him this song is sung

Riding on his daddy's, shoulder behind a mule beneath the sun

Yes and joy was just a thing the key was a reiki stone

Love was just a way to live and die Ha ha

Gold was just a wind to Kansas Wheat field

Blue was just the Kansas summer sky

Have we forgotten all the lives that were?

All the vows that were taken? Say never again

Now for the first time, this could be

The last time if peace is our vision let us begin

There are four generations of blood in this top soil

Four generations of love on this farm