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The Chris Chandler Show

  • New Orleans

    "New Orleans" by David Rovics

    New Orleans

    David Rovics link



    Everybody knew that it could happen

    The likelihood was clear

    The future was coming

    And now it's here

    They had to fix the levees

    Because otherwise they'd break

    On one side was the city

    Above it was the lake

    It was in the daily papers

    In bold letters was the writ

    What would happen

    When the Big One hit

    But every year they cut the funding

    Just a little more

    So they could give it to the Army

    To fight their oil war



    In National Geographic

    And the Times-Picayune

    They forecast the apocalypse

    Said it was coming soon

    Preparations must be made, they said

    Now is the time

    It was years ago they shouted

    Inaction was a crime

    They said the dikes must be improved

    And the wetlands must be saved

    But Washington decided

    Instead they should be paved

    Because malls were more important

    Than peoples' lives

    So put some gold dust in your eyes

    And hope no storm arrives



    New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans



    Years and years of warning

    No evacuation plan

    It was just if the waters rose

    Just get out if you can

    There were no buses

    No one chartered any trains

    There was no plan to rescue

    All of those who would remain

    All the people with no money

    All the people with no wheels

    All of those who didn't hotwire

    One that they could steal

    Thousands and thousands of people

    Abandoned by the state

    Abandoned by their country

    Just left to meet their fate



    New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans



    And the people died

    And then they died some more

    They drowned inside their attics

    An army of the poor

    An army of the destitute

    Who couldn't get away

    And the world will remember

    These sad and awful days

    When people shouted from their houses

    Dying on their roofs

    When people came to find them

    They were turned back by the troops

    They died there with no water

    They died there in the heat

    They were shot down by the soldiers

    For trying to find some food to eat



    New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans



    And now the city is in ruins

    A massive toxic sea

    Scattered through the nation

    Half a million refugees

    Here we are

    In the richest country on the earth

    Where the color of your skin

    Determines what your life is worth

    Where oil is the king

    Where global warming is ignored

    Where the very end of life

    Is the place we're heading toward

    Where it's more than just a metaphor

    The flooding of the dike

    And if we don't stop this madness

    The whole planet will be like