1991- 'I Want To Live'

August 30, 1991 performance of 'I Want To Live' - an anthem for the children.

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What can we do to end world hunger?

"Our commission said the most important thing to be done is to educate the public about the facts of world hunger… about what can be done and most specifically that it can be eliminated if we choose to do so.   I think the first and best thing I can do is sing the song “I Want To Live”, to talk about world hunger every chance I get and really try to get across to people that this is within our grasp. 

This is something we can do, and to get people interested enough in it, keyed up enough in it that they talk to their representatives and that it becomes a political issue.  It’s not now.  The first thing to do is to get people interested in it and let them know something can be done.  It’s like I said earlier, here’s one of the ways we can truly start working together.  Why don’t we put more focus on this?  Why don’t we spend more time and energy on this?  I know people will do it.   And I think it’s my job to get the people 'to-doing-it'. " – John Denver, 1981
.A decade later, and beyond, John was still singing this song to make a difference.  How will YOU make a difference?  What programs can you align yourself with to support so that your one small drop becomes a ripple that changes the world?  These questions are still worth asking.

"I Want To Live"

There are children raised in sorrow on a scorched and barren plain,
There are children raised beneath a golden sun.
There are children of the water, children of the sand,
And they cry out through the universe, their voices raised as one:

I want to live, I want to grow, I want to see, I want to know,
I want to share what I can give, I want to be, I want to live.

Have you gazed out on the ocean, seen the breaching of a whale?
Have you watched the dolphins frolic in the foam?
Have you heard the song the humpback hears five hundred miles away?
Telling tales of ancient history of passages and home?

I want to live, I want to grow, I want to see, I want to know,
I want to share what I can give, I want to be, I want to live.

For the worker and the warrior, the lover and the liar, for the native and the wanderer in kind.
For the maker and the user, and the mother and her son.
I am looking for my family and all of you are mine.

We are standing all together, face to face and arm in arm.
We are standing on the threshold of a dream.
No more hunger, no more killing, no more wasting life away.
It is simply an idea and I know its time has come.

I want to live, I want to grow, I want to see, I want to know,
I want to share what I can give, I want to be,

I want to live, I want to grow, I want to see, I want to know,
I want to share what I can give, I want to be, I want to live.
I want to live, I want to grow, I want to see, I want to know,
I want to share what I can give, I want to be,
I want to live, I want to live, I want to live.

[Shared for inspirational and educational purposes only. Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research.]