Story Behind The Song

My heart has been broken over the choices we as a nation have made that have compromised, even ruined, that ideal which we once owned and loved: stewardship of the priceless virtues of liberty, justice, and righteousness that have been consigned to us. I wanted to find a way to express how serious this matter is, and to issue both a warning and an appeal to America.

Song Description

The country's most precious symbol, its flag, has been defiled by allowing it to touch the ground: this image is used metaphorically to describe America's great fall from her place of virtue and rectitude.

Lyrics

Now, I don't know about you,
But I've been looking 'round;
It hurts, but yes, it's true,
That the flag has touched the ground.

Cries for justice, none are heard;
It's just a seven-letter word.
A million wrongs never righted,
Another felon not indicted.

A few still care, but they're alone.
When will their hearts turn to stone?
The voice of conscience is despised,
Neither heard nor recognized.

Well, you think what you will,
But it's been coming down...
And I'll be crying still
That the flag has touched the ground.

I went up to a gray-haired man:
"Help me, father, if you can!"
He spoke through tears, his voice so old:
"Somewhere, somehow, I lost my soul!"

I went up to a lovely girl:
Sweet as spring, and pure as pearl;
She sighed, and spoke, though just a child:
"There is nothing not defiled!"

Have it your own way,
But this is what I've found:
We're living in the day
When the flag has touched the ground.


Throw a party, stop your ears,
Rationalize all your fears.
Mock the ones who plead with you;
Switch the channels, change the view.

Don't heed loud knocking at your door;
You're having fun, there's always more.
Go to bed, shut down your mind;
But when you wake, what will you find?

Brother, sister, listen...
Though you don't like the sound,
What will you do,
Since the flag has touched the ground?

I saw it flapping in the rain;
Ragged, torn, forsaken, stained;
In the storm, and in the night:
Dangling without lamp or light.

Three hundred million pairs of hands
Don't have the strength the task demands
To hoist and keep it in the air,
'Cause only hearts can hold it there.

Vanquished in this war
Like none that's been before;
It's we that pulled her down,
And the flag has touched the ground.