Lawdy Lawd

We often forget who really did in New Orleans: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with its ridiculous projects like the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet ("Mr. Go"), which quite literally welcomed storm surges into the city. But you won't forget after reading Michael Grunwald's great feature in the latest New Republic. You need a subscription or something, but believe me, it's worth it. The article puts me in mind of lyrics by Mike West, a fantastic New Orleans singer songwriter whom I now suspect is displaced, in a song called "Corps of Engineers":

there's been a lot of talk

about widening the lock

baby can you tell me is it true

they're gonna make the levee steeper

so they can dig the canal deeper

so i was told so i'm telling you

they held a big meeting
i didn't go but i been reading
all about it, of course it's only hearsay
some against some are for
while the mayor he hems and haws
and the corps of engineers have their way

folks round here got the fear of god
everybody say lawdy lawd
there's only one thing we fear more
that's the corps of engineers

see the canal it must expand
it's about supply and demand
but it sounds like slight of hand to me
there just ain't that many ships
since the oil boom left it's slick
and the port of new orleans begging on her knees

they're gonna tear down the old bridge
it'll do a lot of damage
but it's all for the greater good
part of a twelve year plan
hell i'll be an old man
before the dust settles in our neighborhood

folks round here got the fear of god...

now i would like an explanation
of this word "mitigation"
right now the way that it seems
you put a man from his home
then buy him a ticket to the super dome
it's like beating your kid then buying him
an ice cream
i ain't a kid and i don't eat ice cream, much

©2000 Mike West

Lawdy lawd indeed. Read the Grunwald piece.