[dropcap]M[/dropcap]aybe I should say ' Co Dependence ' Day. This writer was never a gung ho fan of Bruce Springsteen, but some of his songs do hit home. How about this one:
- Born in the U.S.A.
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
Till you spend half your life just covering up
Born in the U.S.A., I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A., born in the U.S.A.
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man
Born in the U.S.A.
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said "son if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said "son, don't you understand"
I had a brother at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go
Born in the U.S.A., I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A., I'm a long gone daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A., born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A., I'm a cool rocking daddy in the U.S.A
The power of those lyrics resounds so well for a product of the turbulent 1960s.To have lived as a teenager morphing into a man during that Vietnam debacle and horror show, Springsteen's lyrics cover lots of ground. He alliterates the plight of young, low income working stiffs from dead end towns across this nation.... then just substitute Afghanistan and Iraq for Vietnam, and nothing has changed. It is mostly the working stiffs and uber poor who kill and die in phony wars. The song implies that both the job market and our Veterans Administration didn't give a rat's ass for returning GIs from the Nam. The most saddened lyrics are those that remember the poor soul who returned home in a box. Nuff Said.
As the 4th approaches the movers and shakers of empire are making sure that the suckers are served a bundle of propaganda along with their burgers, dogs, soda pop and brew. The army of flags will appear, along with the others already hung up by worshippers in this temple of war. You see, our great MAGA is still fighting back against the terrorists and brown faced aliens, all who wish to destroy our great ' Land of the 1/4 of the 1 % '. The great journalist Greg Palest renamed our country the ' Armed Madhouse'. Yet, so few of our fellow citizens realize they are being had by phony celebrations of our military strength and resolve. Trump wants a mega ' march of the Pentagon' complete with even tanks on the Capital Mall, to frame this con that we are a nation at war. WE HAVE NOT BEEN AT WAR SINCE WW2!
When the effects of either your electronic gadgets, alcohol, cigarettes, 24/7 sports and news gossip, and of course opioids, wears off a bit, maybe then you working stiffs will see more clearly. The clock is ticking towards the end of this empire... morally, financially and physically. Those who rule always need the co dependence of their serfs. Put that in your firework and light it!
PA Farruggio
July 1st 2019
Philip A Farruggio is a contributing editor for The Greanville Post. He is also frequently posted on Global Research, Nation of Change, World News Trust and Off Guardian sites. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen and a graduate of Brooklyn College, class of 1974. Since the 2000 election debacle Philip has written over 300 columns on the Military Industrial Empire and other facets of life in an upside down America. He is also host of the ' It's the Empire... Stupid ' radio show, co produced by Chuck Gregory. Philip can be reached at paf1222@bellsouth.net.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
All image captions, pull quotes, appendices, etc. by the editors not the authors.
