EXPLANATION

In September of 2006, we flew to Phoenix, Arizona to meet with Food for the Hungry about a partnership. We had just recently made the decision to go full time less then a year prior to this trip, which resulted in Jordan withdrawing from public school, and doing schoolwork on a laptop on the road. While on the plane, we were discussing our years in public school leading up to touring in a band.

All three of us went through the Carroll County Public School system, and in addition, our mother has been a public school teacher for over 20 years. While we were in school, there was a lot of talk about “under God” being removed from our “Pledge of Allegiance.” I remember feeling extremely bothered by this possibility because we were already attending a school in which evolution was taught as fact, the faith of our founding fathers was being ignored, and all forms of organized prayer had been banned.

“Keep the ammo dry” is a song about this issue in the public schools. Why include this on a concept album for Africa? Glad you asked. There are actually several reasons. First, “THE VIRUS TOUR” that started in March of 2008 in support of the new record, began in public high schools in MD, starting with the school we graduated from. The high schools brought in the tour on a “humanitarian” basis and allowed us to run 2 mandatory assemblies during the day, followed by a concert at night. This allowed us to share our hearts about children in Africa on an 8-month tour. Secondly, the phrase “keep the ammo dry” was inspired by a quote on a gravestone from a civil war soldier in Gettysburg. The quote read,

“In God we trust, but we’ll stay up through the night to keep the powder dry”.

In short, this quote was communicating that the soldiers trusted God and his plan for their lives, but they weren’t going to simply stand on the sideline and watch what happened; they were going to be proactive in fighting for what they believed. This is a very strong message, and one that can be used to illustrate the goal of “The Virus Project” of fighting for kid’s lives in Africa.

The last line in the 2nd verse “We have freedoms but still we don’t help out our brothers” ties the 2 ideas of the song together. As a country, we have freedoms to choose so many things on a day to day basis, yet, often times, we choose to ignore the fact that our brothers and sisters oversees are starving for hope while we stand by and argue over 2 words in a pledge.