Timely lyrics

This song has been pertinent to me for over a decade and continues to send chills through my inner being. Written by Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls in 1992, it strikes me as being all the more valid today in the disconnect and disinterest of those in power, but also in the reasons why the progressive voice of the masses must speak louder and louder and louder and ....

Let It Be Me

Sticks and stones
Battle zones
A single light bulb on a single thread for the black
Sirens wail
History fails
Rose-colored glass begins to age and crack
While the politicians shadowbox the power ring
In an endless split decision never solve anything
From a neighbor's distant land
I heard the strain of the common man

Let it be me (this is not a fighting song)
Let it be me (not a wrong for a wrong)
Let it be me,
If the world is night
Shine my life like a light

Well the world seems spent
And the president
Has no good idea of who the masses are
Well i'm one of them
And i'm among friends
Trying to see beyond the fences of our own backyard
I've seen kingdoms blow like ashes in the winds of change
But the power of truth is the fuel for the flame
So the darker the ages get
There's a stronger beacon yet

Let it be me (this is not a fighting song)
Let it be me (not a wrong for a wrong)
Let it be me,
If the world is night
Shine my life like a light

In the kind word you speak
In the turn of the cheek
When your vision stays clear
In the face of your fear

Then you see turning off a light switch is their only power
When we stand like spotlights in a mighty tower
All for one and one for all
Then we sing the common call

Let it be me (this is not a fighting song)
Let it be me (not a wrong for a wrong)
Let it be me,
If the world is night
Shine my life like a light

Emily Saliers 1992