Jim Vick: Listen

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I wrote this song during the Reagan years, growing frustrated with the apathetic silence that seemed to have overtaken many of those around me.
I resurrected the song as the drums of war were being sounded in the aftermath of 9/11. With apologies to my friends in Kiel (Hey, my grandparents were German, too!) But when this old metaphor I’d heard as a kid resurfaced in my thoughts one day, it felt too fitting to resist, and out came this song. Now, almost 20 years later, it rings truer than ever in the U.S.A.! - JV

GOOD GERMANS
World shaking decisions
Are not up to u s to make.
Political upheaval is too big a task
For common folks to undertake.
Far be it from me to ever show
Mistrust in those
who win at the polls.
Far more than we
they surely must know
of matters such as world control.

Good Germans,
our lips are ever sealed.
Good Germans,
Our doubts are never revealed.
Good Germans,
We silently obey.
Good Germans,
We turn our heads away.

Silence at the workplace.
No talk on the assembly line.
No one dares to question.
It never seems to enter our minds.
How long can we be content
To tolerate the trials?
To hide the inner anguish
Behind plastic frozen smiles?

Good Germans,
our lips are ever sealed.
Good Germans,
Our doubts are never revealed.
Good Germans,
We silently obey.
Good Germans,
We turn our heads away.

Some say that history repeats
Itself every now and then.
The Neros and Hitlers
come to power
and take the word over again.
But how could madmen
take control
and come to enslave
the human soul
if we did not stand idly by
and never ask each other why?

Good Germans,
our lips are ever sealed.
Good Germans,
Our doubts are never revealed.
Good Germans,
We silently obey.
Good Germans,
We turn our heads away.

Will we willingly accept the change
and silently disengage our brains like
good Germans?

Copyright 1984 Jim Vick