00:03They wrote it on the paper
00:07In the coldest ink they own
00:11Your presence is not conducive
00:16Then they lock the kingdom's door
00:36There was a man from the other shore
00:40Who spoke the things they hate to hear
00:44He named the storms that crossed the sea
00:47He named the cost in blood and fear
00:51They watched his every midnight post
00:56They counted every heated word
00:59They said the fire in his throat
01:02Would light the streets they claimed to guard
01:06So the letter came at midnight
01:10Signed in silence, sealed in dread
01:15Extremism, they whispered, unacceptable
01:20They said they slammed the door
01:24In the name of the public good
01:26While the ones who came with darker hands
01:29Still walked the neighborhood
01:37They fear the tongue that will not kneel
01:40More than the blade that already bled
01:44They banned the voice that told the truth
01:48And left the silence in its stead
01:59They spoke of communities that might be stirred
02:04By words about the sacred and the flesh
02:07They said his presence would agitate
02:10The ones they brought across the threshold fresh
02:14Meanwhile the shadow preacher stayed for years
02:18While courts debated torture and the past
02:22And in the towns the night still found their mark
02:25And names were written on the evening news too fast
02:29The people called it public good
02:33But the scales were never true
02:37One man banned for what he said
02:40While others stayed for what they do
02:44They slammed the door
02:46They slammed the door in the name of the public good
02:48While the ones who came with darker hands
02:51Still walked with the neighborhood
02:59They fear the tongue that will not kneel more than the blade that already bled
03:06They banned the voice that told the truth
03:10And left the silence in its stead
03:22They will not say the quieter truth
03:25That some ideas are safer than
03:29While other actions wear the mask of nuance
03:34Context, context, understanding
03:37But every gate that closes on a word
03:40Opens wider for the ones who came with none
03:44And those who know the pattern
03:47Already see what has been done
04:05They slammed the door in the name of the public good
04:09While the ones who came with darker hands
04:12Still walk the neighborhood
04:19They fear the tongue that will not kneel more than the blade that already bled
04:26They ban the voice that told the truth and left the silence
04:32But the silence will not hold
05:02Get access to over 3,000 songs written and produced by John Gunn for just $7 a month
05:08Go to jmgun.bandcamp.com forward slash subscribe and join today
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