I was listening to some old MP3s today when I came across Death Cab for Cutie's "Underwater". Given the circumstances, I couldn't resist firing up the old Winamp.
The lyrics go...
"You are my army and I would command
'Attack the Holy Land.'
And you are that interstate
That I would roll my tanks down.
So color me stunned.
And wake the children when done
And put the details in a jar
And bury them underwater
I went to see these battlegrounds
With battlesounds.
And drove to the outskirts
With cars on blocks
And houses run down.
So color me stunned
And wake the children when done
And put the details in a jar
And bury them underwater
We'll gather up the family and
Display our diseased organs.
We'll call it pride
We'll celebrate tonight
Tax free and always underpriced.
So color me stunned
And wake the children when done
And put the details in a jar
And bury them underwater"
What chilling lyrics on this terrible day. The part about "cars on blocks and houses run down" was what really got to me. It's telling that the people in the most trouble, those that the media and all of America is now rightly highlighting as the hardest hit victims of this disaster, are mostly lower class.
Without a doubt, the President will attempt to salvage his poll numbers by appearing to"save New Orleans" (Drudge's words, not mine}. But the people who will be hardest hit by this disaster are the same people that Bush and much of the rightwing have long ignored.
"Put the details in a jar and bury them underwater."
F-ing weird. America is a nation of good people. Who wants to think that spending $100 billion a year for a war nobody believes in might have diverted funds away from New Orleans levees? Who wants to think that continuing, crippling economic warfare against the lower classes in this nation may have contributed to people not being able to escape Katrina? Who wants to belive that the casualties of this disaster are almost exclusively of the lower castes (oops...classes?)?
"Put the details in a jar and bury them underwater".