All We Have Is Each Other, David Rovics' Blog

David Rovics — Viral Solidarity

March 16th, 2020

Particularly in countries with governments as bought-off and incompetent as ours in the US, how society copes with the current moment will depend primarily on our ability to support each other — mutual aid.  You can also download the song as an MP3.

All of my spring and summer tour plans are currently on hold, along with everyone else’s, for obvious reasons.  Lots more on that later, but I thought I’d share this new song with you for now.  And here’s the latest episode of Song For Today, on the anniversary of the My Lai massacre in 1968 (today).

Viral Solidarity

There’s foreboding in the air
Waiting for an earthquake
Pandemic spreading
No telling how it might remake
A world so divided
In so many, many ways
Anyone can see
It’s no way to greet such days
When you can shut your borders
But it’ll barely slow the spread
With a million people homeless
And not enough hospital beds

In times like these we find out
That a society
Is only just as strong
As our solidarity


The foreboding in the air
Can get only thicker
As we see our leaders
Passing blame and getting sicker
A crashing economy
Leaders fraught with indecision
Only capable of thinking
Like bought-off politicians
Not enough testing kits
And the ones you got were broken
But hey
The president has spoken

Chorus

A million people wake up
In the morning thinking
Thoughts they never had
Til they found that they were sinking
On a cruise ship full of holes
Where if you can’t catch the breeze
There are no fences tall enough
To keep out the disease
Lifting every boat
Or watching them all sink
Ready or not
We’re standing on the brink

Chorus

Contain an epidemic
Like in Wuhan or in Seoul
Or watch a catastrophe
Take its toll
Hide behind our gates
Cowering, afraid
Or organize our neighbors
In mutual aid
In synchronicity
Such great things can be done
A planet to lose
Or a world to be won

Chorus

Back to David Rovic’s Author Page