The Day Our Innocence Died

Sung to the tune of Don McLean's classic American Pie:

A long, long time ago
I can still remember how my duties
Used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make that keyboard dance
And maybe keep the threats down for a while
But that fall morning made me shiver
With every bit of news delivered
Bad news in the inbox
Wolves were loose in our flocks
I can't remember if I cried
When I saw smoke from the tower's side
But something touched me deep inside
The day our innocence died

So, bye-bye, to the hopes we held high
Shocked from rev'rie, hearts are heavy, with no planes in the sky
And everyone was just aghast at the sight
Singin', "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"

Do you cite the rule of law
And do you have faith in shock and awe?
If the Pres'dent tells you so
Now can combat take us to our goal
And leave us with our nation whole?
And can you tell me how this war is going to go?
Now if you have had enough of this
Well sorry, ignorance ain't bliss
We thought we all could snooze
With this "end of history" news
It's easy to look like a total schmuck
When in a foreign mire you're deep stuck
But I knew we were out of luck
The day our innocence died

I started singin' bye-bye, to the hopes we held high
Shocked from rev'rie, hearts are heavy, no one's ready to fly
And all those folks were waving peacetime goodbye
And singin', "We just can't go curl up and die
We just can't go curl up and die"

Twenty-five years, all the seeds are sown
And a new war has us on our own
But that's not how it used to be
When a generation of mujahideen
Came to the calls of the muezzin
Hit the towers, Pentagon and Flight 93
Oh, and while Osama looked around
For something else he could take down
His hideout we did learn
Revenge came in return
While the new world order was no lark
Seeing a new enemy so stark
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day our innocence died

We were singin' bye-bye, to the hopes we held high
Shocked from rev'rie, hearts are heavy, but we can't just go cry
And all those wanting a thousand points o' light
And singin', "This'll be the day that's come nigh
This is when our innocence dies"

Helter skelter in a downstairs pelter
Thousands died in collapsing shelter
Stories high and fallin' fast
Airliner plunging toward the grass
Passengers fighting to the last
Pax Americana a time that's now passed

Now the bombers were up flying soon
Cruise missiles pounding desert dunes
We started up the dance
'Gainst Iraq and the Taliban
Ground troops then take the field
To force Al-Quaida to give up and yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day our innocence died?

We started singin' bye-bye, to the hopes we held high
Shocked from rev'rie, hearts are heavy, and the missiles do fly
And all those folks thanking every ally
Singin', "This'll be when too many die
This'll be when too many die"

Oh, and there we were all in one place
Our past gone without a trace
With no time left to start again
So, come on, might be nimble, might be quick
But still comes one more ugly trick
'Cause torment is the Devil's only friend
Oh, and as I saw scenes of Abu Ghraib
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in Hell
Could break that Satan spell
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day our innocence died

He was singin' bye-bye, to the hopes we held high
Shocked from rev'rie, hearts are heavy, feeling safe was a lie
And all those folks look into hell and they sigh
Singin', "This'll be when hatred applies
This is when our innocence dies"

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I looked on up there from the floor
For the heavens to implore
But still did the ugliness stay
And in the streets, the children screamed
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The heartstrings all were broken
And the people I admire most
The quiet ones who never boast
They look like they just saw a ghost
The day our innocence died

And they were singin' bye-bye, to the hopes we held high
Shocked from rev'rie, hearts are heavy, we're all cut down to size
And all those folks wondering why oh why
Singin', "This'll be the day that I die
This is when our innocence dies"

They were singin' bye-bye, to the hopes we held high
Shocked from rev'rie, hearts are heavy, there's no stars in the sky
And all those folks with heartbroken goodbyes
Singin', "This is when our innocents died"

Wishing Someone Dead

There's a lot of anger out there.  We've got a leader who likes to stoke up rage.  But it doesn't end with him, even if it often starts there.  A lot of people probably look around and wish whole swathes of others would just drop dead.

I'm not pretending I never do it either.  I've got my own list of people who sure seem to be wasting oxygen.

Only…there's a couple of problems with that.  One is the old chestnut about if wishes were horses, we'd be swimming in horse poop.  (Or something like that.)  Wishing is a waste of time.  Since you need to use oxygen while you're going about it, maybe don't go about it in the first place.  Do something constructive.

The second is that, look, there are terrible people out there.  Some will probably never change course.

And yet, once they die…that's it.  They're done.  Too late.  Finished.

No chance at redemption.  No possibility of ever stopping the harming they've done and starting to help instead.  Never again.

That's a worse waste than any oxygen.

And it's not a fate I'd wish on anyone.

An English Slang Word since the 1700s

I found the term in Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 1984, p. 1268.  My own native language, a slang usage that's been in it for up to 300 years, and I hadn't known it.

Lo and behold, Wiktionary has it, too, the second definition:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trump#Verb_2

Dictionary.com also has it, buried down in the results; search/find in page for "slang":

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/trump

Amazing, isn't it?