How Can I Call This Home?

[GOVERNOR JOHN SLATON, spoken]
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...

[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, spoken]
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, spoken]
I am proud to be a Georgian on this day!

[LEO, MELANIE]
These men belong in
Zoos Excuse me!

[FIDDLIN' JOHN]
Sorry!

[BALLOON MAN]
Get your souvenirs!

[LEO, WATSON, PEAVY]
It’s like they never Watch your step, sir!
Joined civilization Where's the fella
With the beer?

[LEO, PEAVY, MONTEEN]
Mama
The Jews are not like That man pushed me!
Jews— Lucinda!

[LEO, ROSSER]
I thought that Hey now, fella!
Jews were Jews
But I was wrong

[LIZZIE]
You got balloons?

[ESSIE]
I want one

[STARNES, NURSE]
Settle down! I never

[LEO, IVEY, NURSE]
I thought I would be I'll take a beer! In my life!
Fine

[NURSE & LIZZIE]
That Slaton's handsome!

[LEO]
But four years down the line
With ev’ry word it’s very clear
I don’t belong:

[FRANKIE, MONTEEN, ESSIE, IOLA, & NURSE]
La la la la in the land o’ cotton...

[LEO]
I don’t cuss, I don’t drawl
So how can I call this home?

[SLATON, spoken]
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!

[LEO, ENSEMBLE]
Not
Mine! We stand together
A Yankee with a
College education In the great
Who by his own design State of Georgia
Is trapped inside
The land that time forgot!
Strong and proud!

[LEO]
I’m trapped inside this life
And trapped beside a wife
Who would prefer that I said “Howdy”!
Not “Shalom!”

[LEO, ENSEMBLE I, ENSEMBLE II]
Well, I’m sorry, Lucille God bless the sight
But I feel what I feel Of the old hills Ever more lives
Of Georgia The dream of Atlanta
And this place is surreal The old red hills of Ever more her eternal
So how can I call this home? Old red hills of home Old red hills of home!