R2P (Human Refugees)

from Between the Droughts and the Floods by Abel Ashes

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about

This song is about true stories, mine and those of others. This song is about empathy and humanity.

The following text is from globalr2p.org

}The Responsibility to Protect was unanimously adopted in 2005 at the UN World Summit, the largest gathering of Heads of State and Government in history. It is articulated in paragraphs 138 and 139 of the World Summit Outcome Document:

World Summit Outcome Document
138. Each individual State has the responsibility to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. This responsibility entails the prevention of such crimes, including their incitement, through appropriate and necessary means. We accept that responsibility and will act in accordance with it. The international community should, as appropriate, encourage and help States to exercise this responsibility and support the United Nations in establishing an early warning capability.

139. The international community, through the United Nations, also has the responsibility to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means, in accordance with Chapters VI and VIII of the Charter, to help protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. In this context, we are prepared to take collective action, in a timely and decisive manner, through the Security Council, in accordance with the Charter, including Chapter VII, on a case-by-case basis and in cooperation with relevant regional organizations as appropriate, should peaceful means be inadequate and national authorities manifestly fail to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. We stress the need for the General Assembly to continue consideration of the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity and its implications, bearing in mind the principles of the Charter and international law. We also intend to commit ourselves, as necessary and appropriate, to helping States build capacity to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity and to assisting those which are under stress before crises and conflicts break out.{

lyrics

R2P (Human Refugees)
Words and music by Abel Ashes

They say poverty is violence.
Well I've lived it, I should know.
I've been beaten. I've been hungry.
You should see the bills I owe.
Beaten in the name of Jesus Christ
When I went left and they went right.

Kicked out on the street when I was just a kid
Returned one punch and that was it.
Kicked out on the street when I was just a kid
I never gave up. I never gave in.

Tried hard to go to school.
Had to drop out in disgrace.
Sacrificed a better future
Just to feed my hungry face.

Worked so hard for little pay
Just to barely pay the rent.
Nothing left for food or bills
Feeling like a piece of shit.

So if you're hating on these human refugees you're hating on my human family.
If you're hating on these human refugees, you're hating on my human family.

Immigration laws kept me from my wife.
Stole four years from our life.
She went home, a short trip.
Said "Be safe.". Kissed her lips.

She was in a car waiting at a light.
She was nearly killed her birthday night.
She was in a car, sister in the back
Sister in a coma, world painted black.

Left everything. I'm by her side.
She's my joy. She's my pride.
Stuck in a bed. Left paralyzed.
Green Card expired. Year's gone by.

So if you're hating on these human refugees you're hating on my human family.
If you're hating on these human refugees, you're hating on my human family.

Sitting here on her hospital bed, TV news counting the dead.
Another boat sank out on the sea, migrants and refugees
Caravan lost out in the night trying to reach the borderline.
They're running from poverty, torture, war, theocracy.
Some of them do not believe, some believe differently.
Running from savagery, running toward democracy.

Some of them LGBT lovers yearning to be free.
Running from a prison state or some demented Caliphate.
Running from MS-13, tyrants and mujaheddin.
Running from tragedy, organ trade and slavery.
Families with kids in tow. They left everything they own.
Holding babies while they cry, hands held up, held up high.
Holding babies while they cry, hands held up, held up high.

So if you're hating on these human refugees you're hating on my human family.
If you're hating on these human refugees, you're hating on my human family.

credits

from Between the Droughts and the Floods, track released August 10, 2019
Words and music by Abel Ashes

Single cover art features a photograph in the public domain by Vartan Derounian of Armenian refugees in a refugee camp run by the USA in Aleppo, Syria in the 1920s.

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Abel Ashes San Diego, California

Born in a cult in El Paso, hitchhiked cross-country as a baby, grew up with mom in the shadow of the A bomb in New Mexico, vacations in San Diego with dad, played open mics with a fucked up old Stella, experimental music shows, lectures, open mics, and dead-end jobs galore, lived in LA and SF, 7 years in Kentucky, 4 years in Tunisia with my wife who was paralyzed in car crash, back in SD, CA now. ... more

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