The final track of Dan Bern's six-song EP, dog boy van, "Oklahoma" probably came as a surprise to anybody with only a superficial knowledge of the folksinger who once called himself Bernstein. Although Bern/stein is probably best known for irreverent, thought-provoking tunes like "Marilyn", "No Missing Link", and the album- and show-opening "Jerusalem" and "Tiger Woods", there's a deep and caring political consciousness to his work as well: there's punch behind his punchlines, so to speak. "Oklahoma" is perhaps the ultimate one-shot retort to anyone who claims Bern/stein only writes silly songs.
Lyrics (reproduced here by permission):
On the 19th day of April
In 1995
There was the worst car bombing
Near 200 people died
In Oklahoma City
On Wednesday nine o'clock
They struck the federal building
Took out near half the block
They thought it was an earthquake
Made trees and lightpoles bend
And folks thought they were seeing
The world about to end
It blew the building open
It lay there like a wound
Twisted pipes and wires
Silent like a tomb
Yeah, they blew the building open
And blew folks lives apart
Firefighters mumbling
And wondering where to start
They rushed out some survivors
But soon could only cry
And place the dead in caskets
And ask the dear lord why
Prayer for the missing
For daughters and for sons
Prayers for the souls of those
Who'd never heard a one
Kevin Small was lucky
His clock needed repair
He overslept an hour
His three-year old son was spared
But for too many others
The news was not so bright
One baby got her picture in the paper
Then she died
The President, he promised
They'd pay dearly for the blast
and all across the country
Flags were flying at half mast
Shock soon turned to anger
"Who would do this?" people said
And everyone suspicious
Had a price upon their head
They thought it was some Arabs
And folks began to scream
"First tighten up the borders
Then hang 'em from a tree
This proves what we've been saying
'Bout our fair and gentle land
Nobody who did this
Could be an American"
The FBI got busy
Some drawings and some names
And everyone was looking
For someone else to blame
Some 50 hours later
Early Friday day
They found the man they wanted
In jail ten miles away
A so-called right extremist
A patriot government foe
An expert on explosions
And white as driven snow
When people heard the news they found it
Hard to understand
How could such a murderer
Come from our own land
But when we build walls and borders
From fear and hate and guns
The hatred turns around and
Strikes at everyone
Maybe now we'll understand
Maybe now we'll see
Superpatriots are seldom
Friends of you and me
They're scared and weak and cowards
And they think that with their guns
The ones they're most afraid of
Will turn around and run
But when we stand strong together
And let love enjoy its will
Misfortune can't defeat us
It makes us stronger still
Like on the 19th day of April
In 1995
A day all Oklahomans will
Remember all their lives
—Dan Bern and Chris Chandler
On a more personal note, I had this song stuck in my head for most of September 11, 2001. My most distinct memory of the Oklahoma City bombing is my boyfriend at the time telling me, "They bombed us" and not understanding what he meant, and later being relieved that he was wrong --- the threat had come from within: "they" had turned out to be one of "us". Similarly, when my parents called me early in the morning of 9/11, it took awhile for their words to register, but unfortunately, once the story of that morning's disaster set in, there was to be no relief. I can clearly remember hoping that the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks would turn out to be domestic terrorism, so that we wouldn't have to go to war. Later that month, Bern/stein's album New American Language was released, and provided me with another lyric that encapsulated my fears: "We might get to see World War III by Thanksgiving Day..."