Susan Werner, witty and wise singer-songwriter, has an animated video of her song "My Strange Nation" posted at Huffington in their Contagious Festival.
http://strangenation.cf.huffingtonpost.com/Give it a listen, get her some web traffic -- and see if you get the same wonderful, enraged, patriotic, energized, melancholy, hopeful, determined, aggravated feeling I do from hearing (and seeing) the lyrics.
My Strange Nation
By Susan Werner
Produced by Crit Harmon
© 2006 Susan Werner
My Strange Nation
Has ocean on two sides
And the ‘Bama Crimson Tide in the south
Tilted slightly toward the north
The immigrants pour forth
Seeking Phoenix
And life hand to mouth
My strange nation
Tilts sharply to the right
With our leaders straight and white
As our teeth
Our population’s mixed
But our election’s fixed
In my Strange Nation
America
My Strange Nation
Built on the backs of slaves
Who were sailed here cross the waves
From far away
This cruel experiment
Was ended by a president
Who was both
A republican ... And Gay
My Strange Nation
Gave the Indians our germs
They surrendered on our terms
As in Died
Their survivors filed appeals
So we gave them roulette wheels
In my Strange Nation
America
But my Strange Nation
Has lost its mind again
Sending young women and men
Off to war
For reasons that aren’t clear
Unless you’re standing near
To the rich and the righteous
And the bored
And my strange nation
Enamored of the cross
And who will win the toss
Of the coin
The circus and the bread
Distract us from the dead
In my Strange Nation
America
But my Strange Nation
Will surely come around
For you cannot hold us down for long
We’ll sputter and we’ll cough
And throw the despots off
And recover the soul that makes us strong
And my frustration
Is just a product of
My strange but loyal love
For this land
For its mountains and its lakes
Tornadoes and earthquakes
For its poets and pioneers
For its fetishes and fears
For its freedom of dissent
For its greasy government
And I will not change this stance
I will not move to France.
I will always hold out one more chance
For my Strange Nation
America.
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