NewOrleans_2005.mp3 listen to Samm Bennett | New Orleans 2005

sammpickaxe.jpgI was outraged and appalled by the Bush government’s disregard for the safety and well-being of those citizens of New Orleans (overwhelmingly poor/working class and African-American) left to fend for themselves in the days following hurricane Katrina. This song attempts to articulate some of that anger, as well as express some hope for change.

Samm Bennett

New Orleans 2005

see the black man down in New Orleans
waist deep in the floodwaters wading
gunfire crackles in the distance
the last glimmer of daylight is fading
he didn’t have much to begin with
now his world has come all unglued
he’s on his way to bust into a grocery store
to get his family water and food

new orleans new orleans 2005

now see the president up in his airplane
he says zero tolerance for looters
one thing this president really knows how to do
is to send in the guns and the shooters
but less bullets more boats beds and blankets
and a few hundred lives he might save
ah but blaming the victim is what we do best
here in the home of the brave

new orleans new orleans 2005

they say the president loves all americans
no matter the color or creed
but you decide for yourself where the real truth resides
is it found in the word or the deed
if you say you don’t think that it’s racist
maybe this’ll cut through your dense mental haze
just try and imagine a whole stadium full of white people
left to fend for themselves for six days
i don’t think it would’ve happened quite that way

new orleans new orleans 2005

now if there’s good that can come from this tragedy
it’s that maybe things’ll get rearranged
lord knows over in washington d.c.
we’re long overdue for regime change
one hundred eighty six million dollars they spend
on the war in iraq every day
with just a fraction of that
they could’ve shored up those levees
and kept the floodwaters at bay

new orleans new orleans 2005

copyright 2005 samm bennett