Hardships #5

Hands Held High-Linkin Park
Turn my mike up louder I got to say something
Light weights step to the side when we come in

Feel it in your chest the syllables get pumping
People on the street they panic and start running

Words on loose leaf sheet complete coming
I jump in my mind and summon the rhyme, I'm dumping

Healing the blind I promise to let the sun in
Sick of the dark ways we march to the drum and

Jump when they tell us that they wanna see jumping
F*** that I wanna see some fists pumping

Risk something, take back what's yours
Say something that you know they might attack you for

Cause I'm sick of being treated like I have before
Like it's stupid standing for what I'm standing for

Like this war's really just a different brand of war
Like it doesn't cater the rich and abandon poor

Like they understand you in the back of the jet
When you can't put gas in your tank

These f***ers are laughing their way to the bank and cashing the check
Asking you to have compassion and have some respect

(Bridge)
For a leader so nervous in an obvious way
Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay

And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day
In their living room laughing like "what did he say?"

(Chorus)Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen


In my living room watching but I am not laughing
Cause when it gets tense I know what might happen

World is cold the bold men take action
Have to react or get blown into fractions

Ten years old it's something to see
Another kid my age drug under a jeep

Taken and bound and found later under a tree
I wonder if he had thought the next one could be me

Do you see the soldiers they're out today
They brush the dust with bullet proof vests away

It's ironic at times like this you pray
But a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday

There's bombs in the buses, bikes, roads
Inside your market, your shops, your clothes

My dad he's got a lot of fear I know
But enough pride inside not to let that show

My brother had a book he would hold with pride
A little red cover with a broken spine

On the back, he hand-wrote a quote inside
When the rich wage war it's the poor who die

(Bridge)
Meanwhile, the leader just talks away
Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay

And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day
both scared and angry like "what did he say?"

(Chorus)
Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen
With hands held high into a sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you

With hands held high into a sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you

With hands held high into a sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you

With hands held high into a sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you

With hands held high into a sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you

With hands held high into a sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you


No one wants that knock on the door. That knock where soliders are standing in your doorway. But you don't know them, all you see is a flag in their arms, and then the news of your lost loved one comes bearing down upon you, as they say their sorrys and leave the flag in your frozen arms. Sometimes, you get a letter first. Whether a letter or soldiers appear at your doorway, nobody is prepared for the news you're about to recieve. Everyone who was heard this song relates it to war. And i think the whole main idea is about war itself. But sometimes, if you just close your eyes and listen to the lyrics, you'll hear lyrics relating to control and money. That's what i think war comes down to. But it doesn't have to be a big war like Afghanistan to be a war. You can be at war with yourself battling addiction,trying to take control of your life or everyday trying to make ends meet financial for you family, or even battling cancer or illnesses that you need money for, but don't have and have no idea where to find some. When i listen, i hear advice to take control of my life, to take it back, but to realize the unequal balance and favoritism towards rich and poor.

"Risk something, take back what's yours/Say something that you know they might attack you for/Cause I'm sick of being treated like I have before" Verses 6-7.  These few lines, say so little but have such a immense meaning to them. It's advice to all those who can't "take back what's" theirs, who are to afraid to make a stand against a greater force. Who are afraid that people will think wrong of them, and laugh at what they stand for. Because it's so easy to just stand there and watch. To stand back and obey. Because, who can get in trouble if they're doing nothing wrong, if they don't start a movement and are just  a simple pawn. These lyrics scream out to do something. To not let another kid get bullied, another person killed, another life controlled.  "Like this war's really just a different brand of war/Like it doesn't cater the rich and abandon poor" Verse 8. It doesn't have to be a actual WAR between the rich and poor. Everyday is a war between them. The constant struggle for poor families to make ends meet for their children. Some soon-to-be mothers deciding that she can't bring another child into the world right now and having an abortion. Not all rich people are mean and ignorant. Most give much of their money to good causes, and do right and just acts to help the poor however they can, but some...It's a horrible thing when they only thing it comes down to in the world is the amount of money you have. A few years ago, i heard someone say to one of their friends that a close friend of theirs had just died from pancreatic cancer. They then continued on to say that Patrick Swayze also had had pancreatic cancer. The difference was the person's friend was told 2 months left to live, he only survived 2 weeks. Patrick Swayze, survived 20 months, almost 2 years. Now maybe their cases were different. Maybe one person was healthier then the other, but what the person said next, does have  some truth to it. They said "the more money you have, the longer you live. Because you can pay to have all these expensive sugeries done, but yet us middle class and poor can't afford those and our survival rate is shot outta the sky." I'll never ever forget what that person said. "On the back, he hand-wrote a quote inside/When the rich wage war it's the poor who die" Verse 20. My favorite verse in the whole song. Because, you don't really thimk about it until you hear it. I never thought about it that way. The constant struggles middle class/poor have to face everyday. Trying to scrape enough money together to feed their families. Agreeing to crazy jobs that at any moment, theire life could end. Because it's so true. If the rich and the poor were ever divided in the world and went to war, who would win, the rich.....or the poor?

Nobody wants to think about the struggles that everybody faces. Who wants to think about hunger and devastation and death? If we don't think about it, does that mean its nonexistent in the world? No. No matter how many times we avoid the hardships other people face, its still reality, its THEIR reality. And when you really think about WHY their reality is the way it is, I'm sureee you can figure out that money has played some part-small or enitrely- in their liestyle.