James McMurtry proves protest song genre not dead yet

[Vox_Reason]

Wish I could credit the DUer who pointed this out this weekend, but this is the best protest song I've heard in a long time. Sad, but very, very true.

Site: http://www.jamesmcmurtry.com
Listen: http://www.compadrerecords.com/downloadpages/wecant.html

"We Can't Make it Here"

There's a Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair, flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, and both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's just stretched so thin
And there's more comin' back 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 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's gettin' thinner each day

Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage don't pay for a roof, don'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
I bet you can't make it here anymore

There's a 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
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 'em all now, they haunt my dreams
All lilly white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their shit don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in their damn 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
So let 'em eat jellybeans, let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat shit, 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
And there's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here
Anymore

[Dissent Is Patriotic]

1. WoW! That just touched me so much...

I love this country so much...I want to save it so desperately.

[Vox_Reason]

2. It really touched me too.

That's why I had to re-post it.

Protest songs have always been about the effect of politics on real people, and this song is a great example of that.

I have a son who's about to turn 4. He's autistic. He has real challenges ahead for the rest of his life. I won't be around to help him with a great many of them. I'm doing my best right now to save and plan for that, but the reality is that he and his caregivers will have to negotiate a lot of that after I'm gone.

I he going to be able to make a living? Is he going to be safe? Is he going to have a roof over his head? Is anyone going to give a damn about him? The way things are going right now, I can't really answer those questions, and right now, it looks like the answer to many of those questions will be "no".

Why are we spending billions with little effect on Iraqis who hate us? Why are we making health care so hard to access for our senior citizens? Why are there tens of millions of our own people who have no health care insurance? Why do millions of children go to bed hungry every night in the richest country in the world? Why can't we pay our educators enough to attract the best and brightest to the teaching profession? Why are so many of our young people in jail because they don't see any other way to make a productive living?

WHY?

WHY???!?

[w8liftinglady]

3. I bought the album after this was posted the last time...

McMurtrey is a lot like John Prine....a very introspective poet...he writes great lyrics.