“I was waiting on a train that was never going to leave. 5 am in Baltimore Penn. The sullen train car sank into the tracks. Wrinkled newspapers finally gave in to the sleeping passengers’ laps. The seats creaked as the anxious teens and twenty-somethings wrestled with what was to come. The rumor was the track went out of service. Everyone was tired of “the economy.” No one knew who won the wars. Or how they were ever supposed to be won. Whoever still had the energy was arguing over whether America was stagnating or in decline. My Mom had lost her job and gone without work for a year; she was losing the house. Three other houses on my street were left abandoned. I had graduated school and was scraping by on odd jobs. It seemed like myself and everyone I knew were going through this monumental standstill, this endless waiting. I got to thinking that there’s a song across every corner of this wounded place that maybe everybody knew, but no one’s singing. And it was then at 5am in Baltimore Penn that punk music needed to tell the story of the great recession. Not the politics, not the sloganeering, but how it feels to be young in the American decline.” Hostage Calm – Please Remain Calm User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.