How Can I Call This Home

Today we honor those who honored us some fifty years ago. Those who gave life and limb for Georgia and suffered unimaginable degradation. But never defeat. The men of Georgia and the women of Georgia have never been defeated:

(making his way awkwardly through the crowd)
I go to bed at night
Hoping when I wake
That this will all be gone
Like it was just a dream
And I'll be home again
Back again in Brooklyn
Back with the people who look like I do
And talk like I do
And think like I do
But then
The sun rises in Atlanta again:

They have risen from the ashes of war with honor and courage and strength!

These people make me tense
I live in fear they'll start a conversation
These people make no sense
They talk and I just stare and shut my mouth
It's like a foreign land
I didn't understand
That being Southern's not just being in the South
When I look out on all this
How can I call this home?

I am proud to be a Georgian on this day!

|These men belong in zoos
It's like they never joined civilisation
The Jews are not like Jews
I thought that Jews were Jews
But I was wrong.

I thought I would be fine
But four years down the line
With ev'ry word it's very clear
I don't belong
I don't cuss, I don't drawl
So how can I call this home?

(in counterpart)
Excuse me! Sorry!
Get your souvenirs!
Watch your step, Sir!
Where's the fella with the beer!
Mama, that man pushed me!
Lucinda! Hey now, fella!
You got balloons? I want one!
Settle down:
I never in my life! I'll take a beer!
That Slaton's handsome:
La la la la in the land o' cotton:

Proud that our state is growing and building!
Home calls, and I'm free of the Southern breeze
Free of magnolia trees and endless sunshine!
Evermore lives the dream of Atlanta
But not mine!
Not mine!

A Yankee with a college education
Who by his own design
Is trapped inside the land that Time forgot!
I'm trapped inside this life
And trapped beside a wife
Who would prefer that I'd say "Howdy!", not "Shalom!"
Well, I'm sorry, Lucille
But I feel what I feel
And this place is surreal
So how can I call this home?

(in counterpart)
We stand together
In the great state of Georgia
Strong and proud
God bless the sight of the old hills of Georgia
The old red hills of
Ever more lives the dream of Atlanta|Ever more her eternal:|Old red hills of home!