Mark Addison Chandler

Reflections on “America’s 250th” from an old broken soldier turned songwriter. Most days I’m proud. Most days I’m ashamed. Everyday I’m grateful for the privilege to be American. Today I use my voice because I was “Born in The U.S.A.”
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Below are the lyrics of not just the Chorus we proudly sing on this day but the verses you may not know that so many continue to live.
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“Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took
was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog
that’s been beat too much
‘Til you spend half your life
just covering up

Born in the U.S.A.
I was…Born in the U.S.A.
I was…Born in the U.S.A.
I was…Born in the U.S.A. now

I got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man

Born in the U.S.A.
I was…Born in the U.S.A.
I was…Born in the U.S.A.
I was…Born in the U.S.A.

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says, “Son, if it was up to me”
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said, “Son, don’t you understand?” now

I had a brother at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Vietcong
They’re still there, he’s all gone
He had a woman in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I’m ten years down the road
Nowhere to run and got nowhere to go

Born in the U.S.A
I was…Born in the U.S.A
Born in the U.S.A
I’m a long gone daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A
Born in the U.S.A
I’m a cool rocking daddy in the U.S.A. Now
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#bornintheusa #america250 #longmayshewave