268. Survivors
In the midst of the women’s movement in the 80’s I wrote the song “Survivors.” It is dedicated to Nan Self of the national Commission on the Status and Role of Women in the United Methodist Church. I met her at a retreat and the first evening someone said, “I don’t know if we’ll survive.” Nan spoke up and said, “We’ll survive because we’re survivors.”
It’s a song about my Mother and my grandmother and probably my great-grandmother too (who I never knew). It’s a song about me and some of my friends. It’s about women I’ve never met in other countries. And it’s about children and sometimes it’s about men—for many survive things they shouldn’t have to. But they do.
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Survivors
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The times have been tough,
The barriers have been strong,
The laws have been rigid,
And the rules have been wrong,
But through all the hard times,
And through all the pain,
We have survived, because we’re survivors.
—
The days have been long,
The struggle has been hard,
Real change has come slowly,
And we’ve grown oh so tired,
But through all the anger
And through all the rage
We have survived, because we’re survivors.
—
We stand in the storm,
The thunder echoes round.
We stand firm together
And we forge a strong bond,
And we grow in new ways
And walk on fresh roads,
We can survive, because we’re survivors.
—
The dreams have been born,
The vision starts to grow.
We all form a circle
And we know—yes, we know
That through all our journeys
And through every day
We will survive, because we’re survivors.
—
© Copyright 1983 by Ann Freeman Price
