Have You Listened To "Dear Congress" Yet? You Should... Or Maybe It Will Break Your Heart

Dispatch is a Boston-based band which just released a new single, "Dear Congress (17)" in response to the spate of NRA/GOP gun massacres. They were moved to release the song after the murders at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. All proceeds from the song will be donated to the Brady Campaign, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing gun violence in America. Dispatch has been working with the Brady Campaign to raise money and awareness and encouraging their fans to write to their congressmembers and ask them to expand background checks. The song was written before the slaughter in Parkland and band members Chad Stokes and Brad Corrigan explained what was behind it:

Written from the the perspective of someone who just buried their loved one, "Dear Congress" is the personal side of observing Washington throw empty condolences to grieving families while accepting NRA Campaign money. How is it possible our "elected" protect the gun lobby more than the human lives they represent? How many more people have to die? How many more kids’ lives have to be erased before we pay attention and make simple common sense changes to how we buy and use guns in our country?

Please listen to the song up top. These are the lyrics, if you dare read them. I wish one of us could make Paul Ryan read them and sit and listen to the song for an hour:

No hands to warm, no bedtime story, no lullaby, no little steps in the middle of the night

And the nation's numb, is this what our forefathers had in mind, what is happening in Washington
It’s not enough

Your thoughts and prayers

You send your love, you say you care But you are not my baby

Oh but my heart has died, standing alone in an empty room, except for my child but she's not really there
And the people have gone, and I want to pick her up and take her home

I can’t bear to leave her here

It’s not enough

Your thoughts and prayers

You send your love, you say you care
But you are not my baby

Oh bless the child, oh rest their souls,
I bet those lawmakers don’t know This feeling that...

It’s not enough

Your thoughts and prayers

You send your love, you say you care But you are not my baby

Can you do something

So that there’s not more gone babies