Text, Peter Yarrow's New "Don't Ever Take Away My Freedom"

Excerpt from Peter Yarrow's New 'Don't Ever Take Away My Freedom'

Hear the song, with Peter Yarrow's introduction

Highlights of the NCC's March 8, 2004, "Guantanamo Due Process Interfaith Prayer/Reflection Service included singer Peter Yarrow's debut of a new verse for his 1970 song "Don't Ever Take Away My Freedom." The verse addresses the issue of the deprivation of due process for the Guantanamo detainees. Yarrow has done a special recording of an excerpt from the song, along with a brief commentary, exclusively for the NCC Web site. He writes, "It is my hope that this song, and others, will help in the current effort to make sure that the detainees are granted due process ... a fair process that exemplifies the rights we have come to rely upon in a democracy and which observe the legal covenants to which America has subscribed among other nations of world."

Pictured:
Yarrow at the March 8 service. (Photo by Rick Reinhard, Washington, D.C. © 2004)
Yarrow with children. (Photo courtesy of Operation Respect)

VERSE:
I always thought that I'd see in my own lifetime
An end to poverty, injustice and war
But now I see that job is going to take a long, long time
So there's one thing we must always make sure

Chorus:
Don't ever take away our freedom
Don't ever take it away
We must cherish and keep that one part of our lives
And the rest, we're gonna' find one of these days
One of these days.....

(THIS IS THE NEW VERSE, WRITTEN FOR THIS SPECIFIC OCCASION)
When the rights that we always have cherished
Are deprived of those called, detainees
We fear for the flag that flies 'ore us
And proclaims “We're the land of the free!”

There is a time for the singing and the sunshine
There is a time for the thunder and the rain
There is a time for the changing of seasons (we learn that too my friends)
But there is one thing we must never, never change

Chorus: