{"id":368,"date":"2008-01-06T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-07T01:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/?p=368"},"modified":"2020-07-03T14:27:53","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T21:27:53","slug":"this-used-to-be-america-redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/2008\/01\/06\/this-used-to-be-america-redux\/","title":{"rendered":"This Used to Be America [redux]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"This
\n
\n<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Just a quick heads up… I posted this song<\/a> back in October — and I was a little embarrassed by how preachy<\/span> and, perhaps, over-earnest<\/span> it is. But, based on positive feedback and comments from colleagues, I decided to move it (at least for the time being) to my band’s official download page.<\/p>\n

You can hear it on the TK Major<\/a>\u00a0page at Soundclick.<\/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<\/span><\/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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just a quick heads up… I posted this song back in October — and I was a little embarrassed by how preachy and, perhaps, over-earnest it is. But, based on positive feedback and comments from colleagues, I decided to move it (at least for the time being) to my band’s official download page. You can […]<\/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],"tags":[365],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368"}],"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=368"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3870,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368\/revisions\/3870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}