This Is My Voice Lyrics - Shane Koyczan And The Short Story Long

This is my voice 

There are many like it 

But this one if mine 

And its a fine line 

When you try and define the finer points of politics 

Politics being a latin word 

Poly meaning many 

And Tics meaning blood sucking butt lumps 

See, too many live in countries where its 

Bullets instead of ballots 

Where gavels fall like mallets 

When held in the hands of those 

Whose judgements can be bought 

As easily as children can be taught to covet 

And the only ones willing to speak up 

Are forced to live 

So far under the radar 

That the underground is considered above it 

This is for the Ho Chi Mins 

And the Michaels Colins 

For the Marques De Sades 

And the muted gods 

This is my voice 

There are many like it 

But this one is mine 

-- We're not always 

Right, but we've got the right to be wrong 

We're not always free 

So this is just a short story long 

This is my voice 

there are many like it 

but this one is mine 

and this time it's for the sons and daughters 

who watch their mothers and fathers 

drown in shallow waters while 

panning for the "American dream" 

in the polluted creek called the mainstream 

This is for the homeless people 

sleeping on steam vents 

making makeshift tents 

out of cardboard and old trash 

trying to catch 40 winks 

in between the crash of car wrecks 

risking their necks by surviving another day 

so that they can starve 

so that famine can carve their body into a corpse 

before their heart stops beating 

so that men in a boardroom meeting 

can make it harder for them to get welfare, health care, 

it's no wonder some of them pawn off their own wheelchair 

and every time I walk 'em by 

I can't help but feel at fault 

that maybe I didn't search myself hard enough 

for the control alt "s" 

so that I could save the world 

Or at least this little girl 

curled up into a ball 

I've spent most of my life throwing compassion back 

like a fish that's too small 

Gotta cash in my reality checks 

drop her some spare fantasies 

cause I've got three separate degrees 

from different universities, 

but the most valuable thing I ever learned 

was to believe people when they say "Please." 

This is my voice, 

there are many like it, 

but this one is mine. 

() 

You ever been real, 

been reamed out, 

picked on, put down, 

ever been ever been rowdy at the sound 

when your own heart breaks, 

not to take the time, to take the time 

ever been seen and not heard, 

you ever blurred the lines for those who tried 

to find some way to define what you are, 

as if you were far from them, 

at least at the heart of them its more than a part of them. 

you ever been told you're too young or too old, 

and there's always that line 

when you're willing to walk by, 

and you gotta receive and then beat the deadlines 

so don't try to define us cause this time we' re fine. 

so don't try to define us cause this time we're fine. 

so don't try to define us cause this time we' re fine. 

We're pissed and we're loud and now you know why. 

() 

Don't tell me there are no heroes 

This is for them, the women and the men. 

For Helen Keller who against all odds found a voice. 

For the choice Veronica Guerin made. 

For Martin Luther King who stayed just long enough 

to share a dream with us. 

This is for that day on the bus for sister Rosa Parks. 

This for the Joan of Arcs who believe 

even in the face of sparks becoming flame. 

The political game that Louis Riel refused to play 

This is for the day the Dalai Lama finally goes home 

For Dr. Jeffrey Wigand who alone stared down big tobacco 

For Nelson Mandela who continues to go the extra mile 

This is for the trial that finally found a man 

guilty of shooting Medger Evers dead. 

This is for everything Malcolm X said, 

remembered by athletes who left the Olympics double-fisted 

For Arthur Miller, 

blacklisted for calling a witch hunt what it was 

For Galileo locked up because he said the earth was round 

For the Two Live crew who found the sound that got them banned in the USA. 

And imagine if we could still hear John Lennon play. 

This is for the someone who stood up today and said, "No!". 

For Edward R. Murrow who shut down McCarthy. 

For Salmon Rushdie, Mahatma Ghandi, 

You, me, this city, this country. 

We will always have a choice. 

When you stand up to be counted. 

Tell the world, 

This is my voice, 

There are many like it, 

but this one is mine 

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