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Essentially Expendable

from Notes from a Failed State by David Rovics

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I heard about the death of Detroit bus driver, Jason Hargrove, from a fellow bus driver in Alberta.

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Essentially Expendable (The Death of Jason Hargrove)

A pandemic is spreading, the health system's collapsing
You can watch it all unfolding on the screen
If you're afraid to go outside, enough groceries to hide
It may have been weeks since you have seen
Someone you can touch, and you miss it so much
As you wonder what might happen next
Like when your savings run out and the choice is all about
What kind of help you might be able to expect

Or perhaps when COVID arrived, while some struggled to survive
You were what they call essential
It didn't take long to see you got that wrong
The word they really meant was “expendable”
It did not take long to see, there was no emergency
Plans in place for something which all the scientists knew
Was just a matter of when, there'd be a pandemic again
And the kleptocrats in power didn't have a clue

Otherwise why Did Jason Hargrove die?

Because he kept on keeping on, waking before dawn To do his part for society
Jason drove his bus, he didn't even make a fuss At the time of the impropriety
Somebody coughed, the virus was off Not two weeks later Jason would be dead
What if he had protective gear, with sick passengers so near
With no barrier to protect his head

Stay home, flatten the curve they say, unless we need you to serve
Food for us, or care for all the ill
In that case we'll call you a hero, like the workers at Ground Zero
Where one by one the cemetery filled
Now in every bus and truck, the drivers try their luck
Essentially told, thank you for your service
If these were the front lines, no one put up any signs
Did anyone sign up for this?

Once the death rate peaks, in days or months or weeks
With each one of the virus's waves
Once we can take stock and recover from the shock
Of the sight of all the mass graves
Will this be the impetus, this driver on a bus
Along with so many, many more
The nurses and the prisoners, seafarers and farmworkers
What will they all die for?

credits

from Notes from a Failed State, released June 4, 2020

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David Rovics Portland, Oregon

Singer/songwriter, writer, podcaster (on Spotify, Substack & Patreon), anarchist, dad, lover of life.

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