Posted on May 22, 2012 at 2:24 am

How Can I Call This Home?

 

GOVERNOR JOHN SLATON
Today we honor those who honored us fifty some 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…At this point, we see LEO FRANK making his way, awkwardly, through the crowd.

LEO
I go to bed at night
Hoping when I wake
This will all be gone
Like it was just a dream
And I’ll be home again,
Back again in Brooklyn.
Back with people who look like I do,
And talk like I do,
And think like I do,
But then
The sun rises in Atlanta again…

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

LEO
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?

SLATON
I am proud to be a Georgian on this day!
LEO
These men belong in zoosIt’s like they never joined civilizationThe 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?SLATON
Proud that our state is growing and building!LEO
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?

LEO continues on his way to the office,
as SLATON’s float moves off to massive applause.

 ASSORTED SPECTATORS
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…
Mama, look!(several sing)
La la la la in the land o’ cotton…SLATON AND ENSEMBLE
We stand together
In the great state of Georgia!