EXPLANATION

“Arm the babies, kiss the mothers” is a song that parallels three different ideas into one song. The first concept is revealed in the first verse where it describes “the comfort of home” as a “warm blanket”, alluding to the fact that “the world is a chill” and “a numbing cold air.” This concept comes from a sermon that our father once preached at church explaining that being a Christian will cause us to step outside of our comfort zone in order to be used by God. The second verse completes this idea by giving a personal example of touring and being on the road many days out of the year. The line “but I am awakened by the sound of urgency, sirens and ecstasy now” actually eludes to the final song on the album that says “till the poor will have hope…we can’t sleep…” in attempt to tie the songs together by revealing the great need that exists in third world countries. Some people have argued the use of the word ”ecstasy” because of it’s drug connotations, however, the use of this word was to describe the definition of a “sudden, intense feeling” that is evoked in all of us as we learn about children dying. The final line of the second verse,” will the sky still accept a poor man’s pound” is a question of whether or not society will accept an artist’s form of currency, music, to help change the world?

The second idea in this song is that of a more haunting, and disturbing nature: Child soldiers. In parts of Africa, there are groups of soldiers that will enter a village at night stealing young boys from the community. These boys are taught how to carry a gun at a very young age, as well as how to fight. The most disturbing part of this scenario is that after the boy has been trained, that child is told to return to that same village to shoot his mother, father and siblings, and burn the village to the ground. This story is where the line “arm the babies and kiss the mothers” comes from.

The third idea of this song comes from a generation battle that has been ongoing for years. This song is not attempting to point fingers at one particular generation, but rather recognize that there is a generational gap in understanding the war on HIV/AIDS. Proverbs 6:10-11 says,

“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.”

This Proverb is discussing the need for hard work and gives an example of what leads to poverty. So many of us here in the states have enough to survive and feel that as long as we have enough for ourselves, then the world goes on. But the fact is that over 6500 children die every single day in countries around the world because we fail to realize that a mistake has been made! We cannot continue to sit back and pass our failures to generations to come because quite frankly, a terrible virus that we should be preventing is destroying the next generation! This idea also supports the line “we arm the babies and kiss the mothers” as yet another generation passes on extreme poverty to their children and asks them to fight the war.