--- In [email protected], [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > It wasn't his culture, it was his mind. The guy > was mentally ill.
While I agree, as an American Ex-pat By Choice I have to try to remind those still living within the mindculture of America that this particular brand of mental illness is the first thing that most of the human beings on the planet Earth think of when they think of America. It's sad...near heartbreaking...to have to write that. It's sadder that it's probably accurate. I don't know about you guys, but I've spent my time since reading about this latest outrage not trying to find someone or something to blame, be it gun laws or immigrants or crazies, but trying to comprehend and somehow come to a sense of comfort with the sense of uncomfortableness that this latest news of the land of my birth has left me with. The closest I can come is Ani DiFranco's anthemic 'Tis Of Thee, one of the most compassionate song/poems I've ever heard. It won't really work for you without the music, but if you can find it online, I highly recommend it. But follow it up with her song Everest, just to balance things out... They caught the last poor man On a poor man's vacation They cuffed him and they confiscated his stuff They dragged his black ass down to the station And said, ok, the streets are safe now All your pretty white children can come out and see Spot run And they came out of their houses And they looked around But they didn't see no one My country 'tis of thee To take swings at each other on the talkshow TV Why don't you just go ahead and turn off the sun Cuz we'll never live long enough To undo everything they've done to you Undo everything they've done to you Above 96th street They're handing out smallpox blankets so people don't freeze The old dogs have got a new trick It's called criminalize the symptoms While you spread the disease And I hold on hard to something Between my teeth when I'm sleeping I wake up and my jaw aches And the earth is full of earthquakes My country 'tis of thee To take shots at each other on the primetime tv Why don't you just go ahead and turn off the sun Cuz we'll never live long enough To undo everything they've done to you Undo everything they've done to you They caught the last poor man Flying away in a shiny red cape They took him down to the station And they said, boy, you should've known better Than to try to escape I ran away with the circus Cuz there's still some honest work left for bearded ladies but Its not the same going town to town Since they put everyone in jail Except the Cleavers and the Brady's My country 'tis of thee To take swings at each other on the talkshow tv Why don't you just go ahead and turn off the sun Cuz we'll never live long enough To undo everything they've done to you Undo everything they've done to you
