I've always liked Springsteen, ever since I bought
Darkness On The Edge Of Town way back in '78. His new one
Devils and Dust is a good listen, too. Lonely, stark, spooky... kind of in the vein of 'Nebraska.' I'm not here to talk about that, though.
I will quote a quick lyric from the title-mentioned song, though:
I'm just trying to survive
But if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
A soldier returning from the war with a head full of images that he'll never shake puts it less poetically, but no less forcefully, after the fold.
"There are some days," he says, "when I get up and think, What the fuck? I lost my house, I lost my kids, everything I went over there to protect is gone."
The 'he' refers to Matt LaBranche, who served a nine-month hitch in Iraq as a gunner guarding the many convoys that must run over and across Iraq to keep our soldiers fed, hydrated and armed.
You'll have to sit through a quick ad to view the Salon article if you're not a member, but it's well worth it.
The gist of the story is the horror that so many soldiers bring home in their head and the horror the administration is trying to perpetrate on them by taking away most if not all of the money they need to live.
I don't have a question, I don't have an answer... I just wanted y'all to have a little more ammo the next time someone asks you just what it is you don't like about our friends in the Bush Administration.
R
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words