James McMurtry ~ We Can't Make It Here Anymore

We Can't Make It Here Anymore

An interesting article:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebea...

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

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

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
I 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 them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their sh@# don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the da$% 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
Let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat sh$%, 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
There's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore

Music and lyrics by James McMurtry
http://www.jamesmcmurtry.com/

• Category

  News & Politics

[calliemimosa]

WOW!!!! SOME POWERFUL TRUTH in those lyrics and that video.

Some television station should play that over and over for 24 hours. That is our truth right now.

Bush can smile and try to ease our fears but the United States in in a fast downhill tumble!

God bless James McMurtry and God bless you all!

Tammy

[blondJasper]

All politicians,not just in the USA but here in Britain as well,should be chained in a dungeon and forced to listen to this song over and over again for at least one week.

[MrDoYouKnow0]

When I was young very early in the 1990s, the neighborhood I'm at had kind of an outdoorsy touch, then everything was built up in the mid 1990s and it tumbled after that. Hopefully things will get better.

[Alibby57]

Heard this on PBN when he just released it! As powerful then as it is now!!



[Arnaldo picapau]

Hey Henry Milton Zobie,if you or one of your friends or relatives see this comment,remember i am Arnaldo from Eilat.I lost your track in 2005 cause i lost your email adress,but you can contact me if you want,sending post to:abuchmann at yahoo.com or if you prefer a letter to Arnaldo buchmann at:1331/apt.38-Merhavim Str. Dimona(866711)Israel.Wish you a long life,cheers pal. 

[Christopher Glembotzky]

And that was 5 years ago!!!

[brooke wilber]

the rich make each other richer, the poor are kept down... even education does nothing to improve your chances of a comfortable life. there is no hope for improvement if you think so visit some of the country folks, Indian reservations and ghettos where Americans are forgotten!!

"where the poor fall thru the cracks" amen!!

[Colette Bembenek]

Stephen King was once quoted as saying, "This could well be the best protest song of all

time."

[Josh Boyell]

i dont know if the left is any better than the right. obama and clinton have more in common with bush and romney than i ever will with any of them. and another thing why is shit bleeped? this seems to be a fairly left leaning video, what happened to pursuing free speech? this is why i wont ever vote democrat or republican, both are more concerned with safety than freedom

[pigle36278]

I Work for the VA...These Vets deserve better, period

[MiserableOldFart]

Minimum wage does NOT, repeat: DOES NOT CAUSE unemployment. That's GOPer horseshit.

[MiserableOldFart]

petty bs like bush and dick trashing the country for eight years, and the rich throwing themselves tax cut parties while the country crumbles?

Are you that totally fucking stupid?