| Iris DeMent - Wasteland of the Free | ||
From the album: The Way I Should, released in 1996.
I heard this last night, and it blew the doors off my head.
A national anthem for now. And yet this was written before 9-11, before the invasion of Iraq, before Huckabee flew to the Caymans after telling us that we needed to change the Constitution to fit the Southern Baptist convention, before John McCain put Charlie Black in charge of his campaign, before I sent my son to inner city Philadelphia to teach 6th graders how to read, before the incarcerated population of this country had clicked past two million, and my daughter went to work in the homicide division of the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington, D.C.
This is as patriotic a song as you can get, because it says we can do better.
It reminds us that once we were better.
We got politicians running races on corporate cash
Now don't tell me they don't turn around
and kiss them peoples' ass
You may call me old-fashioned
but that don't fit my picture of a true democracy
and it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free
We got CEO's making two hundred times the workers' pay
but they'll fight like hell against raising the minimum wage
and If you don't like it, mister, they'll ship your job
to some third-world country 'cross the sea
and it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free.
And yes, "you may call me old-fashioned" but I think we can be better again.
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