PART THREE: What's the Big Idea?

 

Earth Song

By Michael Jackson1

What about sunrise?

What about rain?

What about all the things

That you said we were to gain?

What about killing fields?

Is there a time?

What about all the things

That you said was yours and mine?

Did you ever stop to notice

All the blood we've shed before?

Did you ever stop to notice

The crying Earth, the weeping shores?

Aaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaah

What have we done to the world

Look what we've done

 

What about all the peace

That you pledge your only son?

What about flowering fields?

Is there a time?

What about all the dreams

That you said were yours and mine?

Did you ever stop to notice

All the children dead from war?

Did you ever stop to notice

The crying Earth, the weeping shores?

Aaaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaaah

I used to dream

I used to glance beyond the stars

Now I don't know where we are

Although I know we've drifted far

Aaaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaaah

Aaaaaaaaaaaah

Hey, what about yesterday?

(What about us)

What about the seas?

(What about us)

The heavens are falling down

(What about us)

I can't even breathe

(What about us)

What about the bleeding Earth?

(What about us)

Can't we feel its wounds?

(What about us)

What about nature's worth?

(ooo,ooo)

It's our planet's womb

(What about us)

What about animals?

(What about it)

We've turned kingdoms to dust

(What about us)

What about elephants?

(What about us)

 

Have we lost their trust?

(What about us)

What about crying whales?

(What about us)

We're ravaging the seas

(What about us)

What about forest trails?

(ooo, ooo)

Burnt despite our pleas

(What about us)

What about the holy land

(What about it)

Torn apart by creed?

(What about us)

What about the common man

(What about us)

Can't we set him free?

(What about us)

What about children dying

(What about us)

Can't you hear them cry?

(What about us)

Where did we go wrong?

(ooo, ooo)

Someone tell me why

(What about us)

What about babies?

(What about it)

What about the days?

(What about us)

What about all their joy?

(What about us)

What about the man?

(What about us)

What about the crying man?

(What about us)

What about Abraham?

(What was us)

What about death again?

(ooo, ooo) Do we give a damn?

 

If—

By Rudyard Kipling2

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run—

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And—which is more—you'll be a Man my son!