Night Letters

This song is about Todd the Rod (the bassist who wrote the song) and an Afghani refugees relationship. I have read that Tod volunteers at a center that works with refugees and such, which would explain him worrying about this person ("I spend sleepless nights as my head swims worrying about you."), since this person is fleeing this war-torn region. ("You have traveled so far from home. Sorrow has followed every step of the way. You're caught between this life and the one left behind. I see it's burning you inside like some exploding sun. Your mind constantly returns to a place that's not so fucking cold, but on fire with war."). Todd talks about himself being "adept at cold", which I believe is referring to the bitterly cold winters on the prairie in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where Todd lives. The person he is talking about is far from home, which I believe is Afghanistan..

When he sings, "You're starting over from scratch, sending your money home. You're working as hard as you can while life hangs in the air. I see distant lights up ahead but I'm worrying about you. It's all taking it's toll and you can't concentrate.", I think he is explaining that this person is waiting to hear from the INS (or whatever the Canadian version is) about his/her amnesty status, which may send him/her back to war-torn Afghanistan, while also working many, many hours to support themselves, and their family back home. This stage in the government's amnesty processing could go either away, so he is "seeing distant lights up ahead", but still worried.

"You are being crushed by the world. I have gotten lucky so far." Todd, like many people living in Western society, is privileged that he hasn't had to face the same hardships (at least not yet) as this person by just living in Canada where there hasn't been a war for a long, long time, which explains him being "lucky so far".

"We sit at the end of this night-dialing. An answer finally reached through a long distance line. News of threatening night letters. Stones tossed over the fence. Your loved ones taunted by murderers. Tell them it's three years they'll have to wait as their whole world implodes." I think when Todd sings about "night-dialing" it is because Afghanistan, being on the other side of the world from Winnipeg, would mean that Todd and this Afghani refugee would have to call at night in Winnipeg for it to be daytime in Aghanistan, where they could reach this refugees family. The wikipedia article of a "night letter" is below, which explains why I believe this song is about an Afghani refugee. The murderers are the Taliban, and this refugee and their family and friends are probably supporters of secular government and eduction in Afghanistan, which is why they are "taunted by murderers". The part about having to wait three years while their world implodes may be in reference to the time it would take for this refugees family to be able to come to Canada for amnesty, but I am unsure about that part.. Brilliant and heart-wrenching song for sure though! The instrumentation matches the emotions of this song very well.. An awesome song that is very common with Propagandhi.

"A night letter is an unsigned leaflet distributed clandestinely.

More recently, night letters have been a tactic employed by the Taliban and other extremist groups in Afghanistan to intimidate supporters of secular government and education."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_letter