You gotta watch over liberty, each and every hour
Liberty seems so strong, but it can wither like a flower.
We must be ever vigilant, lest someone steal it away:
You gotta watch over liberty each and every day.
When your back is turned, they come for you
And lock you up for things you did not do,
Your right to trial, they just sign it away,
You gotta watch over liberty each and every day.
Let’s close it down, Guantanamo Bay,
Four hundred men still languish there today,
Five years of pain, five years denial,
Five years of no fair charge and no fair trial.
If you get a letter, they treat you better,
The guards will know although they shout and curse,
So send that mail, to the ones in jail,
If the letters stop, the treatment just gets worse.
When justice fails, when there is fear,
Whenever men and women disappear,
The words we write and the words we say
Will speak for Liberty each and every day.
(rewritten for Amnesty International by Moyna Gardner)
