Living In These Times

This is was written in late September, 2001 by John O'Connor, a poet and labor organizer living in New York City. My City What if life were long and eternity short? In my city innocent people are killed by a thunderous terror from above. Vendors in the street are pummeled by rubble. Men and women on their way to work are greeted with the anonymous hatred of those they have never met. Janitors, businessmen, clerks, cooks, construction workers, the rescue workers who risk all to help these. My beloved city showered with death. We cry up and ask, in the midst of the screams of loved ones, why do they hate us so? Why do they do this to our city, to our lives? My stomach turns in on itself. The people I love, burning, dissolving, dying. The city I love, attacked from above. My brothers in agony. My sisters. Children. Mothers. Dead. Who would do this? Why my beautiful city? How do we survive this but by breathing the city's name over and over like a mantra, a prayer? Baghdad, Baghdad, Baghdad. This recording is dedicated to the good people of Afghanistan, who, as I write, are being indiscrinately slaughtered by the world's biggest terrorist organization, known as the United States Air Force. Recorded live at Caffe Lena, Saratoga Springs, NY on September 29th, and at Hill & Valley Studio, Valley Falls, NY, on October 1st, 2001. Engineered, mixed and mastered by Bob Noble -- bobnoble@iname.com. We are all children of Jerusalem