Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends

Ring out the bells again
Like we did when Spring began
Wake me up when September ends

Here comes the rain again
Falling from the stars
Drenched in my pain again
Becoming who we are

As my memory rests
But never forgets what I lost
Wake me up when September ends.

It always surprises me the impact music can have during a painful time. It was sobering last night to hear a song that I hadn't especially liked previously, suddenly ring true in a way I didn't expect. Such was the case with the Green Day song above.

I guess this defines the promise of art – the way it can rise at the right time and stick to a situation with such precision. Articulating what words alone cannot.

I recall it was the same immediately after September 11 2001, when so many people felt compelled to pump up U2's "Beautiful Day" on their car stereo, simply because they needed a purging blast of "ride-the-rails" music to give them a lift.

Amid all the America-bashing that many of us may have done over the last few years, it pays to remind ourselves too of the rough times ordinary Americans – those not dripping with diamonds or running oil corporations – have seen in this decade.

I'm no great fan of America's current government. But as someone who spent a happy three years as a child in the US, I do know that there is a vast difference between "America" as a symbol and ordinary Americans.

September 11, the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars and now Hurricane Katrina have torn into the confidence of middle America. For the nation's biggest-ever terrorist attack to be followed by its biggest natural disaster in less than five years is soul-destroying for a lot of people. And in between, for so many young soldiers to be sent off to a war, about which most Americans are at best uncertain, makes the going even tougher.

We should remember that individual people are not super-powers. And for many of us in Asia who have lived through our own tumultuous times, we should feel empathy right now, rather than a wrongly placed sense of justice – which I've overheard from a few, and admittedly felt a few times myself.

Human nature isn't always pretty or well considered. But then, that's what makes us so interesting.

What has occured to me over the past two weeks is the way in which New Orleans shaped the cultural psyche of many Americans, despite their present day differences. The New Orleans of writers from Mark Twain to Jack Kerouac – and musicians from Leadbelly and Charlie Parker to Wynton Marsalis, Credence and Paul Simon – infused the country with its rich vein of cultural diversity and creative expression.

For those of us who love to travel to beautiful and vibrant places, the loss of the Mississippi Delta region, for however long, is a tragedy. Politics comes and goes like the rain – but soulful places stay with you forever.

As my memory rests
But never forgets what I lost
Wake me up when September ends.

I love this song so FREAKING MUCH!!!!!!!!!