It's unconsciable, is is morally wrong (no matter what your morality) and it's Un-American on the highest order. If the good and decent people of this nation ever decide to turn off the TV and wake up, those people responsible for these decisions - to ask for sacrifice of the highest order and then reward it with less than basic dignity, choosing instead to reward themselves and their corporate buddies - better be able to run far and run fast because there will not be enough trees, nor enough rope, to give them what they so truly deserve. It's enough to make me wish that hell was real, just to know that they are going there.
At the last war, the most poinent song, one so true that he can't even perform it anymore because he has a tendency to break down in tears when he does it, was this one by John Prine:
Sam Stone came home,
To his wife and family
After serving in the conflict overseas.
And the time that he served,
Had shattered all his nerves,
And left a little shrapnel in his knee.
But the morphine eased the pain,
And the grass grew round his brain,
And gave him all the confidence he lacked,
With a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back.
Chorus:
There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,
Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose.
Little pitchers have big ears,
Don't stop to count the years,
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.
Mmm....
Sam Stone's welcome home
Didn't last too long.
He went to work when he'd spent his last dime
And Sammy took to stealing
When he got that empty feeling
For a hundred dollar habit without overtime.
And the gold rolled through his veins
Like a thousand railroad trains,
And eased his mind in the hours that he chose,
While the kids ran around wearin' other peoples' clothes...
Sam Stone was alone
When he popped his last balloon
Climbing walls while sitting in a chair
Well, he played his last request
While the room smelled just like death
With an overdose hovering in the air
But life had lost its fun
And there was nothing to be done
But trade his house that he bought on the G. I. Bill
For a flag draped casket on a local heroes' hill.
Guess not much has really changed has it?
But I do know, all too well, that if you need something to eat, ask the guy who has a day old bagel pulled out of a dumpster, not the one who tossed out half of his $100 lunch.
