Reader Adrianne Aron of Berkeley, California has come up with new words for the ballad by the great working-class folksinger Utah Phillips, “I’m All Used Up.”
Utah Phillips’ original is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx0xg32qf6c
Adrianne Aron wrote:
BUST THAT BLOCKADE
For years I paid taxes to states and the Fed / I didn’t have much but they took what I had,
And now I’ve been coughing, been coughing real bad / And spitting up Healthcare for All.
He took away science, he took away truth / He tweeted and groped and he acted uncouth.
He injured the old and neglected the youth / And laughed about Healthcare for All.
The students are drowning in rivers of debt / A curse called Corona won’t let them forget
The tests that we need aren’t available yet / My god! We need Healthcare for All.
Some people are counting on lockdowns and laws / To keep COVID-19 inside people’s jaws
That’s unrealistic, if only because / The answer is Healthcare for All.
They blame Europeans, they blame the Chinese / “It’s not a pandemic, it’s just a disease”
And soon they’ll blame you, friend, and soon they’ll blame me / Because we want Healthcare for All.
I cough and grow weak but they don’t have a test / They promise that Washington always knows best.
We know that old saw, they should give it a rest / And think about Healthcare for All.
They’ve outlawed the scientists, silenced the pros / Kicked out the doctors, and meanwhile it grows.
And where is it headed? Well, nobody knows / That’s why we need Healthcare for All.
Corona in Cuba is under control / They’re using a drug that can make people whole,
But the U.S. blockade won’t allow for a soul / To import it for Healthcare for All.
I shelter in place and I cough and I spit, But I can’t be tested because there’s no kit.
Make them lift that blockade! Call a strike! Throw a fit! / Demand we have Healthcare for All.
–Adrianne Aron March, 2020 www.adriannearon.com
