Sunday, April 30, 2006

Youngstown, Ohio - Anywhere America!

I have been absent from this blog for some time. It is hard to balance writing for someone else and for yourself. This assignment will end and I will return to posting on this blog shortly.

It is also difficult to know exactly what to write about these days. There is so much bad in the world, it is quite overwhelming. Be it the chaos in Iraq or the growing threat we created in Iran. Be it the issues with immigration in this country or immigrant unrest in Europe. Be it the continual decline of our environment by a President who couches that destruction in the rhetorical guise of environmental stewardship. Be it our “strong” economy which is creating more and more millionaires and makes the rich even richer while swelling the ranks of the poor.

Our country is a failure. Our experiment in liberal democracy is a failure. I hate to sound like a socialist, but if you want to help our economy you should kill a rich man! They are ruining us. There is a group of wealthy people born of the philosophy of Andrew Carnegie, which believe that they grow wealthy (in matters of soul, if not in matters of finance) when we all prosper. But they are a paltry minority. The rich don’t give a damn about you if you are poor. They will suck your life and your work ethic in an effort to leave a few extra nickels to leave to their lazy and stupid progeny. Make no mistake that this country was not only built by the blood, sweat and tears of the poor. It was also paved with their bones!

I feel nothing but hatred for George W. Bush and his filthy, evil cabal. The worst is that they sedate us with tales of Christian morality. I hope his bible study group enjoys their meetings as they rot in the fires of HELL!

That said, I leave you with the words of a man who says it better then I ever could. The song is Youngstown. The poet is Bruce Springsteen! Viva la revolution!

Here in north east Ohio
Back in eighteen-o-three
James and Danny Heaton
Found the ore that was linin' yellow creek
They built a blast furnace
Here along the shore
And they made the cannon balls
That helped the union win the war

Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown

Well my daddy worked the furnaces
Kept 'em hotter than hell
I come home from 'Nam worked my way to scarfer
A job that'd suit the devil as well
Taconite, coke and limestone
Fed my children and made my pay
Then smokestacks reachin' like the arms of god
Into a beautiful sky of soot and clay

Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown

Well my daddy come on the Ohio works
When he come home from world war two
Now the yards just scrap and rubble
He said, "Them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do"
These mills they built the tanks and bombs
That won this country's wars
We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam
Now we're wondering what they were dyin' for

Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown

From the Monongaleh valley
To the Mesabi iron range
To the coal mines of Appalacchia
The story's always the same
Seven-hundred tons of metal a day
Now sir you tell me the world's changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name

In Youngstown
In Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown

When I die I don't want no part of heaven
I would not do heavens work well
I pray the devil comes and takes me
To stand in the fiery furnaces of hell

Copyright © Bruce Springsteen

1 comment:

Be Brief said...

they spam blogs !?