RIP to Charleston Church Massacre Victims: Alicia Keys – ‘We Gotta Pray’

Keys calls for unity, strength and faith. 

Following mass protests in New York City and Ferguson, USA Mo., Alicia Keys released a new song, “We Gotta Pray,” on Wednesday.

The release follows the grand jury’s decision in New York not to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold death of Eric Garner.

Keys told the New York Times she wrote the song after being moved by the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Garner in New York, who both died at the hands of white policemen.

“We absolutely feel disregarded as human beings,” said the 33-year-old singer.

The three-minute ballad features lyrics such as, “Fire in the air, what the hell going on? Sirens everywhere, singing that street song,” mixed with images of protesters in New York and Ferguson, tear gas and riot police.

Famous quotes from iconic civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi are interspersed throughout the song.

Keys, a New Yorker, used Twitter to express what the lyrics mean to her.

(You know)
We gotta pray
We gotta pray
We gotta pray, pray for the world tonight
We gotta save, somebody save somebody tonight
Fire in the air, what the hell goin' on?
Sirens everywhere, singin' that street song
Violence everywhere, barely holdin' on
What the hell goin' on?
Do you know who you are?
Do you know who we are?

We, we're extraordinary people
Living an ordinary life
Growing stronger to every question
We're gonna make it or dying, 'till we gotta pray

Pray for the love tonight
Another day, pray for another try
Smoke is in the sky, what the hell goin' on?
Bullets gonna fly, fly right from the gun
Trying not to cry, barely holdin' on
What the hell goin' on?
Do you know who you are?
Do you know who we are?

We, we're extraordinary people
Living an ordinary life
Growing stronger to every question
We're gonna make it or dying, 'till we gotta pray

We gotta pray
We gotta pray
We gotta pray,
We gotta pray!

Watch video below:

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 Background: 

U.S President Obama - "Now is the time for mourning and healing, but let's be clear: At some point, we as a country, will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn't happen in other places with this kind of frequency," the president said as he stood next to Vice President Joe Biden. "It is in our power to do something about it… I say that recognizing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those avenues right now."

*Scanty Gela Blog commiserates with the families of the victims of this senseless, barbaric massacre and pray to God to grant the souls of the murdered eternal peace. Amen.