Love this song...tells it like it is

Can be downloaded here
"We Can't Make it Here"
Lyrics
Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore

See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna set there till they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore

The bar's still open but man it's slow
The tip jar's light and the register's low
The bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day

Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far 5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore

High school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that
If she comes up pregnant what'll she do
Forget the career, forget about school
Can she live on faith? live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
When it's way too late to just say no
You can't make it here anymore

Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore

Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their sh@# don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the da$% little war
And we can't make it here anymore

Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat sh$%, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore

And that's how it is
That's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper
Read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind
If you're listening at all
Get out of that limo
Look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone
Tell us all why

In Dayton, Ohio
Or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That's done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alleyAnd trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore

Music and lyrics © 2004 by James McMurtry

What I have been doing instead of dispensing my pearls of wisdom here...;-)

Hey it is getting closer to being warm and comfy! We have been more than a little busy with this (you can see the difference if you scroll down a few posts to the before pics) and Nana's 90th birthday party this past weekend, but it is all coming together.

Take care of yourselves.

But the Good Remains..

Came back by here and realized I was pretty focused on the bad! There has been an amazing person to person outreach across the country, which does warm my heart. They found the little boy's dog Snowball! (For those who didn't hear that story they took his dog from him as he boarded a bus to flee the Superdome and he cried till he threw up :-( ) But they will be reunited, and as miniscule as that is it makes me happy. The first evacuees have arrived in my state of RI. These people all thought they were going to Houston and were told once the plane was ready to take off they were coming to RI, but they were very grateful and gracious about everything. The strength left in the people after the past week gives me hope too. Despite all the bad things one may hear about what happened inside New Orleans there were LOTS of neighbors helping neighbors, there were cops who had lost everything themselves who stayed and worked 24 hour shifts back to back to rescue their neighbors and keep them safe. It is good to hear the brighter side of human stories coming out of the Gulf now, it doesn't erase the bad by a long shot, but it is good.

And on my personal homefront, my best friend came by and gave me a card unexpectdly which really made my day. And we will soon be moving to a place in a really great neighborhood for my daughter, there are a zillion (well really maybe only 20) kids her age in a two street radius. We are also directly across the street from the city park! Add on to that being able to help out Nana who has always been there for us and I am getting pretty psyched. Oh and while the cars kept breaking down we got a free used wooden swingset in great condition!! Those things cost about a 1,000 dollars, so that was awesome. Oh and my nephew was born beautiful and healthy on Tuesday the 6th at 3:50 in the morning at 9lbs 9oz (we make them big LOL). They are all home and doing great and I am sooooo happy that I now get to share the parenting experience with my brother!! He will be a great Dad and I always thought he wasn't going to have kids and was sorry about that.

So I am feeling hopeful this morning...now if I can just not read or listen to any news for the day....

Well it seems to have all gone down hill since the fun weekend.

Personally at work I have two people I have worked with and supported have major medical problems one resulting in death and one a major brain bleed and we have no idea how far she will recover. That has been rough.

Watching people who have it 5 zillion times worse than me on the Gulf Coast has not made me more thankful for what I have as what I usually try to get from tragedy. I am drained, good lord, I can not imagine how those people feel. Shame shame on us. For letting conditions that led to it being so bad fester without caring and doing something to protect our fellow citizens and shame on us for not caring enough whether we were prepared to handle the worst when it happened. I am a bit sick of the meme of the "blame game" I like to call it the accountability of reality and not a game.

Our cars have broken down three times in the last 4 weeks to the tune of over 2,000 dollars (that we don't have) and now my driver side window has disappeared into the door and refuses to give me a glimpse of it to pull it back with. And ickkkkkk I just can't stop feeling crappy about my bad luck despite the constant reminders of how truthfully blessed and lucky I am!

So shame on me for caring but not acting with complete outrage on a pretty consistent basis. I am paying attention and I am outraged...but do I act outraged day to day? And shame on me for having such a tough time reconciling my outlook on the world with my consumption in the world. And shame on us as a country for not making taking care of our own our national priority everday.