Which 'New' is preferable? New York (40 degrees North, 74 degrees West) or New Orleans (29 degrees North, 90 degrees West)? The Anglo-Dutch or the Anglo-French; the indigenous peoples being long driven out and down by tides of colonialism and immigration?
Which hurricane is preferable?
Sandy or Katrina?
And which era?
The Obama or the Bush?
If it keeps on rainin, levees goin to break,
If it keeps on rainin, levees goin to break,
When the levee breaks, I'll have no place to stay.
So begins the month of the dead, Samhain in Irish.
Over forty die as Hurricane Sandy lashes the east coast of the United States of America.
Over 1 800 die in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Survival depends on where you live and who you are, even on the colour of your skin.
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan,
Lord,
Lord,
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan
The Obama era surges from a wave of hope to a deluge of disappointment, which releases a tsunami of Romney-reaction.
Is this the dawn of a new Bush era, now close within Romney's grasp?
The deluge mounts and the levee breaks. The citizen stands sodden and bereft, voting slip in hand, up to the neck in a nightmare of hanging chads.
How to vote now?
Cryin wont help you, prayin wont do you no good,
Now, cryin wont help you, prayin wont do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.
The storm is dark. The home is threatened. The earth foregoes its leisures and wreaks its wrath.
How to cast that petty, crucial cast into the seas of power and influence?
Upon the leisures of the earth the whole home is lifted before the approach of darkness as a boat
The citizen asks 'is it safer to face the floods and storms of existence in a new Bush era or in an extended Obama era?'
All last night sat on the levee and moaned,
All last night sat on the levee and moaned
The raging torrents of politics clash and roar, then wash over the citizen.
There is no hope for civilisation in government by idolised single individuals.
The choices are vital, yet limited. Can change be wrought from a maelstrom?
When the Levee Breaks: song; Led Zeppelin version
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: book; James Agee and Walker Evans; Peter Owen Limited; London; 1965
Everybody's Political What's What: book; George Bernard Shaw; Constable and Company; London; 1944
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