Not in My Name
This article originally appeared in Southern Exposure Vol. 14 No. 1, "The Chords That Bind." Find more from that issue here.
They could have been innocent, they could have been to blame.
It might have been a fair trial, it might have been a frame.
It really doesn’t matter, I’d have told you just the same:
No more executions, no, no, not in my name.
Chorus:
No more executions, in my name.
Vengeance could never heal the pain,
My answer must always be the same,
No, no, no, not in my name.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth
A life for a life, a youth for a youth
But I don’t need revenge, I won’t play your crazy game
No more executions, no, no, not in my name.
Executions will deter them, surely they’ll think twice,
But in the heat of violence who thinks about the price?
Our society has time to stay its bloody hand,
And keep us from adding to the murder in the land.
Gas chambers and gallows, guillotines and pain,
As we become more “civilized” death needles in the vein.
But killing is still killing, it will always be the same,
No more executions, no, no, not in my name.
It’s who we kill and who we spare and who can pay the fee,
Reflects in us the measure of our society.
If you’re poor or of color, and no one knows your name
When you are convicted, death row may be your fate.
And when the voltage shoots through that awful deadly chair,
It’s you and I who throw the switch and you and I who bear
The burden of the killing, the horror and the shame,
No more executions, no, no, not in my name.
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Joe Pfister
Joe Pfister is a staff member of the Institute for Southern Studies who sings and writes songs and gets people singing together in his “spare time.” (1986)
Joe Pfister, now on the staff of the Institute for Southern Studies, was a field worker for the Southwest Georgia Project from 1966 to 1976. (1982)
Joe Pfister was a field worker for the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education from 1966 to 1976. He is currently a staff member of the Institute for Southern Studies and an editor of Southern Exposure. (1981)