THE RAGE THAT GUIDES

i never meant this world for you and it breaks my heart to know the suffering it has put you through this grief has shaped me forged in the pain of my past but i ache from the damage of our collective experience injustice drives my rage, my guide he says he's lost all faith in humanity he was so naive i can't console him, all that i can say is that's a realistic way to be i never believed he calls for blood with tears of fury in the name of family in a world that's out to rip our wings injustice drives this rage that guides after all this time i'm horrified i wish i could have protected you i can't change the past so all i ask is that you never make excuses for their ways i'm sorry you went through this for me we fight together for our dignity bound by blood bound by enemy i have my own religion but i ain't got no faith because this world has left me with only one thing to believe in when even men of god are out to break me: this rage that guides this rage that guides i would give you everything if i could your support means more than anything else ever would this rage that guides this rage that guides this rage that guides me Every word in this song was taken directly from conversations that my Dad and I have had about our society's physical and psychological war against the poor, women, people of color, non christians, the radically minded, the trans/gay/bi/queer community, and moreover, what it is like to watch the person you love the most suffer through the discrimination, hate, and abuse of this culture. "How," my Dad asked me on the day he found out I was drugged and gang-raped, "how do you face the world knowing how cruel it can be? How do you keep from locking yourself in a room and crying all day after what's been done to you?" That answer was easy. "For every time I should have cried, for every time I've been hurt, the only thing I've ever felt is hate and an all-consuming rage toward a society that allows this to continue. That's that's what keeps me focused and that's what keep me strong... this rage. This rage that guides me."