{"id":359,"date":"2007-10-15T19:12:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-16T02:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/?p=359"},"modified":"2018-07-06T10:10:57","modified_gmt":"2018-07-06T17:10:57","slug":"this-used-to-be-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/2007\/10\/15\/this-used-to-be-america\/","title":{"rendered":"This Used to Be America"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"This
\n
\nNew Song Alert!<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/b>P<\/span>reachin’ democracy…<\/p>\n

It’s still preachin’. With all that entails. Maybe it’s because I’ve been spending so much time listening to country, mountain, and rural gospel lately. They ain’t afraid of no preachin’….<\/p>\n

Anyway, when the phrase “This used to be America”* came to my lips the other day (in one of those listening-to-the-news-too-much rants my cat is getting used to) I sat down to write what I hoped might be some classic agitprop… I don’t think I actually got there<\/span>… and I wasn’t actually going to let this out of the work folder but, I dunno, I listened to it this morning and thought, shoot, I’m feeling this. I’m feeling it right now.<\/p>\n

When the general once in charge of the US war on — excuse me, in <\/span>— Iraq calls that catastrophic misadventure a “nightmare without end” — I figure there’s some wiggle room for a little Monday morning jeremiad from an aging, disillusioned US businessman (that would be, you know, me.<\/span>)<\/p>\n

This used to be<\/span> America, you know.<\/p>\n

But we could still be who we know <\/span>we should be…
\nThis Used to Be America<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n

more stream & DL options<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

lyrics<\/span><\/span>
\nThis Used to Be America <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

This used to be America<\/span>
\nThis used to be the land of the free<\/span>
\nThis used to be the United States<\/span>
\nbut nothin’s like it used to be<\/span><\/p>\n

we put ourselves in the hands of fools
\nthrew our birthrights away
\nput the bottom line at the top of our world
\nlet the god of greed hold sway<\/p>\n

it takes 200,000 bullets
\nto kill one enemy
\nthat what the DoD numbers say**
\nif you don’t count peripheral casualties<\/p>\n

Americans don’t torture
\nWe don’t kill recklessly
\nthats what the man in the white house says
\nthat’s how we want it to be
\nbut it’s gettin’ pretty hard to believe<\/p>\n

blowback’s a bitch
\nbut how could we know?
\nthough our experts kept telling us so
\nwe fed the tiger we got by the tail
\nand now we just can’t bear to let him go<\/p>\n

This used to be America<\/span>
\nThis used to be the land of the free<\/span>
\nbut I swear it’s not too late<\/span>
\nfor the United States<\/span>
\nwe can still be who we know<\/span>
\nwe should be<\/span><\/p>\n

(C)2007, TK Major<\/p>\n

* When I googled the phrase — which I figured had certainly been in use before — I found it had been the working title for a book by…<\/a><\/p>\n

** DOD – Department of Defense<\/span>; this figure of 200,000 bullets for every enemy death in Afghanistan and Iraq is based on US Department of Defense estimates of enemy soldiers killed and the amount of ordnance used in training and combat. Yes… one FIFTH OF A MILLION BULLETS for every<\/span> enemy soldier killed. Of course, this does not<\/span> count “peripheral casualties” — for which estimates range from about 25,000- 30,000 (more than the number of enemy killed — this is the US government’s estimate) to as many as a 100,000. Of course, that<\/span> does not include those who died unnecessarly from malnutrition, privation, and other war-related causes which some well-grounded studies have suggested range from 500,000 to one million extra deaths.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Song Alert! Preachin’ democracy… It’s still preachin’. With all that entails. Maybe it’s because I’ve been spending so much time listening to country, mountain, and rural gospel lately. They ain’t afraid of no preachin’…. Anyway, when the phrase “This used to be America”* came to my lips the other day (in one of those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,340,67],"tags":[426,425,367,365,427],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2774,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions\/2774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}