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