Power Of Equality

I've got a soul
That can not sleep
At night when something
Just ain't right
Blood red
But without sight
Exploding egos
In the night
Mix like sticks
Of dynamite
Red black or white
This is my fight
Come on courage
Let's be heard
Turn feelings
Into words
American equality
Has always been sour
An attitude
I would like to devour
My name is peace
This is my hour
Can I get
Just a little bit of power

[Chorus]
The power of equality
Is not yet what it ought to be
It fills me up like a hollow tree
The power of equality

Right or wrong
My song is strong
You don't like it
Get along
Say what I want
Do what I can
Death to the message
Of the Ku Klux Klan
I don't buy supremacy
Media chief
You menance me
The people you say
Cause all the crime
Wake up mother***ker
And smell the slime
Blackest anger
Whitest fear
Can you hear me
Am I clear
My name is peace
This is my hour
Can I get
Just a little bit of power

[Chorus]

I've got tapes
I've got c.d.'s
I've got my Public Enemy
My lilly white ass
Is tickled pink
When I listen to the music
That makes me think
Not another
Mother***kin' politician
Doin' nothin' but something
For his own ambition
Never touch
The sound we make
Soul sacred love
Vows that we take
To create straight
What is true
Yo he's with me
And what I do
My name is peace
This is my hour
Can I get
Just a little bit of power

[Chorus]

Madder than a mother***ker
Lick my finger
Can't forget
'Cause the memory lingers
Count 'em off quick
Little piccadilly sickness
Take me to the hick
Eat my thickness
I've got a welt
From the Bible belt
Dealing with the hand
That I've been dealt
Sitting in the grip
Of a killing fist
Giving up blood
Just to exist
Rub me wrong
And I get pissed
No I can not
Get to this
People in pain
I do not dig it
Change of brain
For Mr. Bigot
Little brother do you hear me
Have a heart oh come get near me
Misery is not my friend
But I'll break before I bend
What I see is insanity
Whatever happened to humanity


The Red Hot Chili Peppers are my favorite band of all time, and this is one of my favorite songs by them. this is one mad dude who wrote this, and it is a great kick off to their Blood Sugar Sex Magic album. Although the song was written in the late eighties/ early nineties it is even more powerful today with all of the questionable things that our Bush administration, and other such right winged things are doing.

Anthem

This is one of those books that you base your life values on. I have never been moved by a piece of literature like this one, and I think that everyone should read it. It was recommended to me by two very important people in my Jr. High School career upon my graduation from Sr. High.
It depicts an Earth that has been torn apart, and that all people are considered one body, mind and soul. There is no love, no progress, and no sense of individuality. The words I, me, and mine have been eradicated, but one man speaks out against this, and becomes an individual. He saves himself.
This is a celebration of the individual. A concept that should never be lost.

JABBERWOCKY

Lewis Carroll

(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

This has to be my favorite poem of all time. It is simply nonsense, but miraculously makes perfect sense. Each nonsense word is some kind of self evident description or an onomatopoeia, so no sense of meaning is lost. I truly believe this is one of the greatest fantasy ballads ever written, and that is not a joke.

the windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins

	To Christ Our Lord

I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,		5
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion		10
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion. This is a very interesting poem, and when read at a glance it seems almost Louis Carrollesque. But it's not. Ithacappella is doing a song to these words, and the song is written by Earnest Backus, our director. It should be a stunning piece, very dissonant, and syncopated. I hope the audience enjoys

Rush - Faithless

this is not an official video, a fan made it, but this is the song.

Faithless

I've got my own moral compass to steer by A guiding star beats a spirit in the sky And all the preaching voices - Empty vessels of dreams so loud As they move among the crowd Fools and thieves are well disguised In the temple and market place Like a stone in the river Against the floods of spring I will quietly resist Like the willows in the wind Or the cliffs along the ocean I will quietly resist I don't have faith in faith I don't believe in belief You can call me faithless I still cling to hope And I believe in love And that's faith enough for me I've got my own spirit level for balance To tell if my choice is leaning up or down And all the shouting voices Try to throw me off my course Some by sermon, some by force Fools and thieves are dangerous In the temple and market place Like a forest bows to winter Beneath the deep white silence I will quietly resist Like a flower in the desert That only blooms at night I will quietly resist



This is a very powerful song written by the trio of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Pert. They are known as the power trio Rush, the most influential progressive rock band from the 70's and 80's. This is off of their latest album Snakes and Arrows, which I was lucky enough to see the tour for. This song is a rebellion against fundamental religion. "A guiding star beats a spirit in the sky" this line is saying that it is better to rely on tangible things for guidance and strength. The rest of the song, if you look closely goes on tho rebuke the forced teachings of preachers, and false profits.
However there is something very important about this song that must not be over looked. the narrator insists that although he has little faith in God he still believes is hope and love and that he is not bleak in his faithlessness.
Also this song was written after the death of Geddy's wife, and daughter.