Name Names Lyrics

can you see yourself along this stream? ripples only
make it messier. there is a poison, one that you can't
touch. was it in you since day one? something you feel
inside and out. your name was known, the shadow that
you cast. it seeps into you, this toxicity. and not for
one year, but many. so it's broken, broken from the
start. is it for us to fix, to put these parts back
together? to not put you in the corner, to not ignore
what went wrong. if you never knew how to swim, would
we throw you in? with you flailing, the tide carrying
you out. would we save you? these are the ones who were
marked, the "nonexistent." we'll be the first to point
the finger, we'll be the first to call you out. to
learn from the unlearned, please ignore our ignorance,
this has become so routine. what will save you? what will save me?

explanation
in school there have always been people who were
labeled as "trouble." where these labels came from,
it's not certain, but they always seemed to stick.
often times, the image that was cast upon these
individuals stayed with them throughout the course of
school, sometimes leading to self esteem issues within
these people. we are so quick to judge, to place people
into categories, so that we have a better handle on
them and can feel secure about ourselves. as a teacher
now, i still see this happen, with both students and
teachers guilty of doing so. obviously, this is not
unique to just a school setting, but really to any
social situation. we have the tendencies to mark people
and truly this is out of our own insecurities.

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