A front-page story in the current Martha’s Vineyard Times announces “Roundabout Construction Expected to Begin in March.” If it actually happens, we’ll be able to use the whole sordid saga as a case study in how democracy can fail with no input from the so-called 1%. Here’s hoping the boondoggle can still be derailed.

Until now, the struggle against the roundabout has lacked a key ingredient: its own song. Tristan Israel, Tisbury’s singing selectman, has rectified this deficiency. Here, with the songwriter’s permission, are the lyrics. You can hear him sing it on YouTube:

The Martha’s Vineyard Roundabout Nightmare Song

Well I like to travel the roads each day,
I deal with the traffic and I’m rarely late
but one fine day I got stuck in a jam
the circle I was in had the traffic dammed.

I’m going round about on the roundabout and I can’t get out of this roundabout,
so all I do is holler and shout
won’t someone save me from this roundabout.

So no one could enter from the left or right
and I think I saw a lady get bumped off her bike.
The people trying to cross were running for their lives,
I could hear their screams as they dodged that bike!

I’m going round about on the roundabout and I can’t get out of this roundabout,
so all I do is holler and shout
won’t someone save me from this roundabout.

Next a bus just stopped in the middle of the circle
and the traffic backed up as it discharged people.
Angry horns blared as the time it passed,
and I saw that I might be running out of gas.

I’m going round about on the roundabout and I can’t get out of this roundabout,
so all I do is holler and shout
won’t someone save me from this roundabout.

Well my truck it died in the rotary
and the traffic backed up to downtown Tisbury.
It also backed up the other way,
there were cars stacked up past Price’s Way.

I’m going round about on the roundabout and I can’t get out of this roundabout,
so all I do is holler and shout
won’t someone save me from this roundabout.

Now many hours later I am sitting here still,
I think I’m gonna die where’s my blood pressure pills?
Won’t someone save from this circle today
or will I be like Charlie on the MTA?

I’m going round about on the roundabout and I can’t get out of this roundabout,
so all I do is holler and shout
won’t someone save me from this roundabout.

Well it cost a lot to build the roundabout
but they got it covered so the politicians shout.
Meanwhile the rest of us got to figure out
how to get the hell around this here roundabout!

(Sing chorus 3+ times)

I’m going round about on the roundabout and I can’t get out of this roundabout,
so all I do is holler and shout
won’t someone save me from this roundabout.

© 2012 by Tristan Israel