Requiem For A Country
Angel Of Harlem by U2
It was a cold and wet December day
When we touched the ground at JFK
Snow was melting on the ground
On BLS I heard the sound
Of an angel
New York, like a Christmas tree
Tonight this city belongs to me
Angel
Soul love…this love won’t let me go
So long…angel of Harlem
Birdland on fifty-three
The street sounds like a symphony
We got John Coltrane and a love supreme
Miles says she’s got to be an angel
Lady Day got diamond eyes
She sees the truth behind the lies
Angel
Soul love…this love won’t let me go
So long…angel of Harlem
Angel of Harlem
She says it’s heart…heart and soul…
Yeah yeah…(yeah)
Yeah yeah…(right now)
Blue light on the avenue
God knows they got to you
An empty glass, the lady sings
Eyes swollen like a bee sting
Blinded you lost your way
Through the side streets and the alleyway
Like a star exploding in the night
Falling to the city in broad daylight
An angel in Devil’s shoes
Salvation in the blues
You never looked like an angel
Yeah yeah…angel of Harlem
Angel…angel of Harlem…
[Repeat and fade]
Heard a few minutes of a report on the construction of “the wall” at our southern border with our neighbor, Mexico. This is the wall necessary to the Presidents reelection, the wall that is being built in defiance of Congress’ funding limits, by siphoning funds from the military construction budget. The wall is 30 feet tall, constructed of steel. It is the most expensive, more costly than any other border wall, per mile, in the world. The President at his campaign rallies, surrounded by adoring supporters calls it a big, beautiful wall. It is being constructed at mind numbing expense; 3.6 billion has been allocated for building the wall.
To think of such a enormous expenditure of funds, for no definite reason except to get the President elected for another term, I feel nothing but dismay. Can a country that is in the throes of a suicidal spiral be regarded with anything other than Stoic acceptance?
I was reminded of the great anthem by U2, lyric composed by Bono in 1986, inspired by a visit to NY City. The song is a lament for the loss of Billie Holiday, sweet Blues singer, who resided in Harlem, New York. The circumstances of her upbringing, neighborhood, friends and associates, alcohol, heroin conspiring in a fated-matrix, resulted in her untimely death. The streets and clubs of Harlem insinuated itself into Holiday, and she in turn sang the shining truth of the city concealed, entangled in its lies with her angelic voice. Bono weeps in the lines and melody of his tune at the loss of Holiday.
We Americans are in a cul de sac. That is how I feel about my country.
