Pacifist's Lament

There's many ways To say you're sorry Home from work, buy some flowers Wash dry, put the dishes away There's a gentle way For a hand to touch a hand For a cup of tea People livin' doing night stands For light to be left on To light someone's way But there is nothing harder Than to stop i the middle of a battle And say you're sorry But we ask it of our children To just stop in the middle of a battle And say you're sorry Each one of us, is ready To just stop There's many ways To see life leave us Don't seem hindsight is always the clearest When the fighters and the flighters Have gone back to their primeval caves You can try to undo Or condition and create it You can go to India And you can sit cross-legged You can walk to the ocean And drown yourself in the waves But there is nothing harder Than to stop i the middle of a battle And say you're sorry But we ask it of our children To just stop in the middle of a battle And say you're sorry Each one of us, is ready To just stop If I had a school I would teach Gandhi and Dr. King And Aung San Suu Kyi I'd teach techniques of non-violence As part of the course 'Cause any kid can add two and two If you show him a path to the truth Monkey see, monkey do That is the saying And there is nothing harder Than to stop i the middle of a battle And say you're sorry But we ask it of our children To just stop in the middle of a battle And say you're sorry Each one of us, is ready To just stop