Day 14 of Controversial Five Iron Frenzy Songs
The Day We Killed
Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo
On the surface, this looks like #3 in FIF's #NativeLivesMatter discography but holy cow, this song is brutal. Micah, Dennis, and Reese write a song that cuts deeper anything b4
The death of Crazy Horse should be a remorseful moment in American history but it is really only a step that has continuously gotten worse. We are all guilty in it.
The other day I did a post about Psalm 14:4 which really fits here -- "Evildoers don't understand that they devour my people like they eat bread and wouldn't dream of praying to God." (My paraphrase.) On the heals of Giants yesterday, this song slices consumerism to shreds.
This song I will do some comments on segments of the song in the thread. There is so much here that should have us on our knees begging God and the world for forgiveness for our evildoing.
Into mass graves we've shoveled lives
A massive pipeline for the lies
A past so vast with genocide
And ignorance we hide behind
You say that we are done with this
Turn blind eyes and still dismiss
Chalk this up as something passed
And still create a lower caste
Lies, Lies
Lies, Lies
The way you live shows no remorse
For the day, the day we killed Crazy Horse
Innocence with glassy eyes
Kill the nation, steal their pride
On broken backs we build empires
Twisting spines for the steeple spires
How many people can you kill?
Look at your twenty dollar bill
Do you see third world poverty
Inside the lines of your country?
And now to treaties we are loyal
But tear them up when we smell oil
Lies, Lies
Lies, Lies
The way you live shows no remorse
For the day, the day we killed Crazy Horse
Innocence with glassy eyes
Kill the nation, steal their pride (x2)
I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud and was buried in the blizzard. Our people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream
The way you live shows no remorse
For the day, the day we killed Crazy Horse
Innocence with glassy eyes
Kill the nation, steal their pride (x2)
It's interesting that this song came up today when a survey about American's understanding of the Holocaust was released. The numbers are atrocious. You can look it up on Twitter as it is trending.
Much like our lack of understanding of the Holocaust, we do not recognize the genocide in our own history. Trail of tears, forced relocation, reservations, Indian Relocation Act of 1956. So much more. That's the tip of the iceberg.
Like Psalm 14:4 says, we are evildoers because we devour people like bread, thoughtlessly and only concerned with our own bellies. You would think the past genocides we committed would change our hearts but we deny it ever happened as it was just manifest destiny being fulfilled.
We cannot be held accountable for the sins of our fathers from which we have greatly benefited. That injustice is done and not correctable. Generational poverty is not our problem. Why don't they pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, even as we steal their boots?
"Look at your twenty dollar bill."
Before this reference goes away with Harriet Tubman gracing the $20 (maybe), we look at the history of Andrew Jackson and the atrocities he committed against the Native Americans. It's how he gained his fame to become president.
We continue the work of Andrew Jackson throughout the world as we try to fill our unquenchable thirst for oil, cheap manufactured goods, and cheap labor to pick our food. We devour the poor to fill our full bellies to overflowing.
This is a quote by Black Elk regarding the Massacre at Wounded Knee, December 29, 1890. In 1990, both houses of Congress passed resolutions which expressed "deep regret" for the massacre. In 2001, they rescinded Medals of Honor awarded soldiers who were part of the massacre.
Despite this deep regret in our own history, we continue to have such massacres worldwide in countries like Yemen as we push for our manifest destiny for world domination as the only superpower. Our nation continues to sin on the lives of the poor worldwide to feed our appetite.
*heels
I never realized how brutal this song really was until I started looking at it this week.
As part of the kickstarter campaign, someone asked if the clothing part of the rewards was going to be fair trade. As I made my Psalm 14 post just a few days earlier, I said I was going to start looking into that myself.
Then the Kickstarter started and the hoodie, t-shirt, and polo were dangled in front of my eyes and I went goo-goo without thinking about fair trade clothing. Her question made me think about it and stand in shame that I couldn't even make it 3 days without forgetting.
Thank you Rachel (I believe that is her name) for making me try to live up to my grandiose statements.
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.