Behind the Song - Like Home (This Ain't No Place)

Yet another song about the current state of leadership (or lack thereof) in our country. When I say “we ain’t worth keeping” I certainly don’t mean human life isn’t worth anything. I mean that when we treat life as meaningless (either our own, or other groups of people), or when we demonstrate with our words and actions a belief that money/power is more important than the well-being of life/the planet, there are severe consequences, and we’re seeing those consequences play out in our society daily. I am so saddened by where we are but also not in the least bit surprised based on our choices/actions as a society. It doesn’t take a genius to realize a Trump presidency was going to produce the circling-the-drain reality we wake up to every morning.
I believe our country is diseased, and in order to cure that disease, I think we should promote education, celebrate diversity, encourage and applaud service, provide all people with the food, housing, healthcare, and mental health services they need, respect all religion (or no religion) while firmly separating it from our government, put down our defenses, be willing to listen, and acknowledge the hurt and fear we all feel. Above all we need to take ownership of the the ways we individually contribute to other people’s suffering even when we don’t intend to or aren’t aware of it. In a nutshell, we have to take care of each other.
Until we all collectively decide that money and power are not worth the countless innocent lives lost to senseless acts of hate and violence, we will just continue to be desensitized to the skyrocketing probability that we, our someone we love, will be shot and killed in public by a stranger with a gun. The “getting used to it” is our body/brain’s way of coping with trauma. I hope in my lifetime, we rise up, fight that numbness, fight that greed, and make every sacrifice possible to show that we value human life more than we value wealth/power, comfort, and convenience.

Lyrics

​this is what we get
this is who we are
we’re the tin man who ran
away from a heart

this is who we are
it’s easy to explain
we’re the scarecrow who said no
to a brain

you see, that rug is getting bigger
the broom is getting thicker
we ain’t worth keeping, so it’s sweeping us under
we’re reaping what we’ve sown
this ain’t no place like home 

this is what we get
this is what we’ve become
we’re the wicked and the cowardly 
just eating up our young

this is who we are
this is what we get
ain’t no yellow brick gonna get
us out of it

and that rug is getting bigger
that broom is getting thicker
we ain’t worth keeping, so it’s sweeping us under
we’re reaping what we’ve sown
this ain’t no place like home