Evan Greer – Ballad Of Hurricane Katrina lyrics

the ticketseller’s terrified
haunted by his dreams
of half-empty trains
rolling out from New Orleans
and the hundreds who came begging
but were harshly turned away
how many of them died
'cause they could not afford to pay?
three days warning
the suburbs turned to ghost towns
second cars left locked in driveways
while in the city people drowned
because they had no escape
from the fury of the sea
what happened here was murder
it was no simple tragedy.

good morning america
how did you get this way?
averted eyes and centuries of chains
here comes the story of the hurricane
and the thousands dead in the city by the sea
murdered by our greed in new orleans

if you’re black then you’re a looter
if you’re white you’re finding food
i ask myself what i’d have done in any of their shoes?
would i have thought about my neighbors in the other part of town
would i know any of their names? would i have dared to stick around?
you can blame the president
or you can blame the sea
but they were murdered by the culture
of this economy
murdered by our fear
and our apathy
they were murdered by you
they were murdered by me

we lay in your bed naked and we watched it on tv
as the soldiers and the cops marched past the dead bodies
they were only there protecting private property
i felt sickened by the sight and sickened by my memory
of the miles that i’d driven and the gasoline i’d had burned
of the love songs that i’d written, and the money that i’d earned
how can we go on living our lives the same way?
how can we keep pretending that we are not part of their game?