We are all born in the USA.
I remember the Boss singing about closed steel mills and whitewashed windows and vacant stores. I didn’t think much about it. I just liked the music.
Between sets he had commentary. I thought, c’mon, Bruce, just sing the songs, the other things I figured, well, “that’s a local problem,” Detroit problem. Pittsburgh problem. Ruth from Duluth problem.
That’s “their’ problem.
Later he sang about shuttered textile mills or auto plants or steel mills and I thought, well, “that’s a regional problem.”
How stupid I was; how stupid we all were. We made fun of American cars—the K car, the Cadillac Cimarron. We laughed and laughed and bought Japanese. I got a Corolla and 30 mph and screw the UAW. Haha on them.
Not so funny now. Now, I’m 50-something and not laughing.
Our parents heard Khrushchev shout “we will bury you.” They were scared and dug bomb shelters and held us close but they weren’t scared of the right thing. It wasn’t their missiles we should have feared. It was our own laziness.
We got buried all right, but it wasn’t the USSR, and it wasn’t Comrade Nikita. It was Chairman Mao, and it was and is China.
Today, go into any store and try to find something made in the USA. Everything and I mean everything’s “Made in China.”
Those things-tools, toys, bras, could be made right here, down the street , across the railroad tracks.
Friends-think when you buy. Think when you vote.