“I can recall vividly almost the exact moment when I realized that everything I’d believed in, everything I’d ever been told by parents, teachers, movies and the “news” was all complete and utter bullshit.
I wept countless wretched, bitter tears.
It broke my heart and put a jagged tear in my soul that I still periodically patch with chicken wire and chewing gum. That moment changed everything, changed me, changed my understanding of the world.
I was 13.Since that moment, I have mourned for the Dream of “liberty and justice for all” like a mother for a dead child. The grief is never-ending. The anger, all-consuming.
Now, like the song says, I feel like a stranger in the land where I was born, and I live just like an outlaw, always on the run.”
— Comment at Veterans Today.
“I live just like an outlaw,
And I’m always on the run.”
Great lyrics throughout that song, “What About Me?” from Quicksilver Messenger Service.
Exactly 40 years ago this month…. same song, different year, and just as effective.
Thanks for that, LR.
Reminds me of this song for some reason:
Band on the Run – Paul McCartney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qx2jEfBsqY
I had not heard Quicksilver Messenger Service – What About Me? until now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENi04LAdmLY
I want to say more but I can’t articulate it.
Lila,
Nice post! I know how you feel. I only hope that more people, and it seems so, begin to feel this pain. As we know from your book Mobs, that the more people feel this pain, the more power will be behind the huddled masses of sheople that perhaps someday soon we will all be able to wipe those dried lines of saline from our faces…