I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound?
Ev'rybody look what's goin' down.
Battle lines bein' drawn,
Nobody's right if ev'ry body's wrong.
Young people speakin' their minds,
Getting so much resistance from behind.
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound?
Ev'rybody look what's goin' down.
What a field day for the heat.
A thousand people in the street
Singin' songs and carryin' signs,
Mostly saying, "Hoo-ray for our side."
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound?
Ev'rybody look what's goin' down.
Paranoi strikes deep,
into your life it will creep.
It starts when you're always afraid.
Step out of line the men come and take you away.
You better stop, hey, what's that sound?
Ev'rybody look what's goin' down.
You better stop, he, what's that sound?
Ev'rybody look what's goin' down . . .
This song was written in the immediate aftermath of the National Guard's
killing of four students who were protesting the Viet Nam war at Kent State
University in Ohio. The Gov. of Kentucky had issued deputized the
National Guard and set them loose to "police" the campus distrubances.
Some claim that they thought they had "blanks" in their weapons . . . others
claim they knew what they were doing. It represents to me the "moral
atmosphere" that surrounds a society which empowers it's "peacekeepers"
to kill . . . or threaten the same. Everytime I think of the police
as "warriors" this haunting song comes to mind. Whether we're calling
for them to be "warriors" in the battle against crime, drugs, violence,
terrorism, . . . I think the message of the song is salient: "Stop,
children, what's that sound? Ev'rybody look what's goin' down."