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"Thank You America," from "Vietnam: Youth 'N Asia"

By Juan Lara

Thank you America, for letting me see the dawn's early light. Yeah i seen the light alright in the form of rockets and mortars, trying to blow up my ass and everyone around me! Thank you America for giving me the opportunity.
Yes indeed America, you are real slick, been leaning on my shoulder whispering in my ear every since i was a kid, you had the rap in all the school books, had my teachers and parents rapping the same shit.
But you didn't stop there with your social and political grooming. You had to go and buy out Hollywood you dig, and had John Wayne coming out the tube whispering in my other ear. Yes, yes, you was real slick and you knew it.... You been feedin' my head for a long time.
But we all know that too much of a bad thing is good.... ignorance is enlightenment.!
But America, i was young and taught to trust.... in you. I should have known when you asked me if i liked the great outdoors, mountain climbing, sleeping out and feeling close to nature.
There i was your little sucker friend, unconsciously asking you for a combat situation.
Then there was silence in your parlor of patriotism.
The verdict.... three years.
America smiled.... Uncle Sam eagerly got my gear together for me.
Oh beautiful for spacious skies? For purple mountains?
Naw man. The skies was filled..... with AK-47 rounds and beautiful red tracers from rockets
shot from Ho Chi Minh's trail, that would turn a brown boy's face like mine pale,
and the mountains was not purple Jack, they was green... and Charlie was not shedding his grace on me!
Oh thank you America for standing behind me...with a political gun in my tender young back!
Standing behind me....whispering in my ear again.
telling me how patriotic i was.
telling me what a good American "boy" i was
telling me "yours is not to question why, but to do or die!"
Oh yes America, that's where you were...way behind me..back there in the world...contracting Penta-gonorrhea.
Thank you America for the opportunity to see!
I'm giving you credit, cause you pulled some jungle fatigues over me!
Oh, let me not forget the haircut, the new shoes and my first M-16....when I was seventeen.
Thank you America, for the ride out to the hill what a thrill,
When the chopper dropped me off I was scared to the bone, cause it was me and me alone
who had to do the job..
a job..
your job!
Yes indeed, since i was a kid you fed my head and fattened me up like i was some kind of cattle...
who stood a good American chance of getting slaughtered..by a government of the people and for the people
for which it thinks it understands, one nation under Nixon.
Thank you America
For the opportunity to see the world,
And for the opportunity to go camping, hiking and being close to nature.
Shit!...i had no romantic notions our there in the bush!
But my man Charlie did.
He'd like to have gotten close to me,
But i'm sure he'd love to have killed me.
But naw America, you didn't kill him
Cause with the rockets red glare and the bombs bursting in air it gave proof thru the night, that my legs were still there!
That's right America, you little sucker friend made it back..walkin'
talkin'
just a grinning right in your face.
But thank you America. Cause you did cure him of the John Wayne Hollywood Hero Habit
But he America, what happened
When i came home?
You sure was cold! Acted like you didn't even know me.
You used me and when it was over
you couldn't even look at me or even talk to me!
You just handed me a few dollars and some change and said "now go to school and forget about it"
That's what it was!
Yes, when Johnny came marching home this time
you were embarrassed...you had no interest.
So you felt bad....and reached in your pocket
and offered me a loan with low interest!
But never again America!
Will you dress this brown man in your War-drobe,
nor will you send me to a foreign land to kill people.
No thank you America!
I'm not impressed with your big guns or your five-hundred pound mobs, and let's not forget your napalm.
You have scorched the soul of Humanity!
What goes around, comes around
thus you have only burnt yourself!
Thank you America!
For the opportunity!
My eyes have seen the glory.....within myself.

Juan Lara
101st Airborne
2/319th Artillery
Hue, 1969