Listen to the Verses

So, I'm sitting in Rice Eccles Stadium last night following the Real vs. Metro Stars game. I'm watching the 4th of July fireworks and there is music playing in the stadium over the P.A. system. At first, they're just playing crappy pop songs, most of which I don't know the names of. Then, they play Lee Greenwood's "Proud to Be an American". People were actually singing along. Although, I think I heard a fair amount of laughter too. But, then they start playing Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA". So, I'm no Springsteen fan, but I do know enough about the song to know that it is not a patriotic anthem. Of course, the problem is, that you're not gonna understand that if all you do is listen to the chorus of Bruce belting out "BORN in the U - S - A!" But, I guess that's not really a problem because I think we live in a nation where a large portion of the people only listen to the chorus, the sound bite, the talking point, or the bumper sticker. So, this morning, I went and looked up the lyrics to "Born in the USA":


Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
'Til you spend half your life just covering up

[chorus:]
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.

I got in a little hometown jam
And so they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to Vietnam
To go and kill the yellow man

[chorus]

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says "Son if it was up to me"
I go down to see the V.A. man
He said "Son don't you understand"

[chorus]

I had a buddy at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a little girl in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years down the road
Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go

I'm a long gone Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a cool rocking Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.

Addicted to War

I just finished reading a "Addicted to War" by Joel Andreas. You can (and should) order a copy, read it, and then give it to a friend to read. I'd already been intorduced to some of the ideas that are in this book when I read Noam Chomsky's "Understanding Power", however "Addicted to War" is a much more approachable and concise way (it's in comic book format and it's only 77 pages) to learn about the problems that the United State's military/industrial complex causes. Problems that you and I, our children, and their children will be dealing with in very real ways.

I found the pieces about the antiwar efforts of the vietnam era particularly interesting. As someone who was born in 1972 and then raised during Reagan's version of the Cold War, I had never learned just how strong the antiwar movement had once been. It's depressing to think that by 1991, George H. W. Bush was able to declare the "vietnam syndrome" kicked as he was invading Iraq and sending our men and women out into harm's way. Something he had never required of his own children.

As someone who marched against the war in Iraq right here in the heavily pro-Republican, pro-Bush, and therefore pro-war Utah, I'm taking solace in the fact that these days, even here, I'm hearing more and more people lament the war and even hinting that they regret having voted for Bush.

It's not a great way to head into the July 4th weekend- re-visiting the idea that, contrary to what they taught me in elementary shool, America has not always stood for freedom and democracy in the world. It makes me think of lines from that great Aztec Camera song "Good Morning Britain":

"The past is steeped in shame
but, tomorrow's fair game.
For a life that's fit for living
Good morning Britain"

Yeah, so it's not about the United States, but I think the sentiment still applies. When I'm watching the fireworks tomorrow night, I'll be thinking of ways to take advantage of the fact that 'tomorrow's fair game.'