Ethan Daniel Davidson - The Cost Of The Land Of The Free Lyrics

I'm just a mid-west heartland boy It matters little who I am But I was born and raised in the land of the free I am a proud American As a child I learned my history Of how our strong country took shape And the price that was paid so that I may live free Well there can be no price too great

The first Americans came from London town This I learned in school And freedom for all, justice and liberty This was their golden rule They cleared the land of Indians Chopped them down like trees For they stood in way of liberty But that's the cost of the land of the free

Now our nation was young and on the rise The cost of which ain't low So ten thousand ships from Africa Came to help our country grow Some were killed b fear in Memphis town Some remain slaves to poverty But someone's always got to pay the price And that's the cost of the land of the free

Now the Mexicans, the Spanish, and the Polynesians Like the Sioux and the Cherokee They were on the land promised us by God As our manifest destiny We fought them hard and we fought them brave Drove them from our territory For that is what it takes to achieve liberty And that's the cost of the land of the free

Well it's my country right or wrong From sea to shining sea We're now the world's police of liberty The proud protectors of all that is free So we freed old Cuba and the Philippines Tried to free the Vietnamese To secure for them their God given right Of paying the cost of the cost of the land of the free

So we sail the seven sees with our dollars and our guns Securing liberty All our battles are just all our causes for the right Even when we fight them secretly Our tax dollars made their way to Pol Pot and Pinochet The Contras and the Mujihadeen Elected social reformers disappeared at their hands They paid the price of the land of the free

America, America America what do you need That you should plunder other nations while playing good cop And compromising their sovereignty? America I'm not one of your brightest sons But I know my wrong from right And when I think of you on your bed of gold I wonder how you can sleep at night America what happened in Afghanistan And to Chile's Allende? What happened in Laos and Grenada Did they pay the price of the land of the free? America you shout out "Liberty" You perform that sound so loud But if your brown or foreign or a white in poverty You seem to say that liberty ain't allowed America where is Crazy Horse? Where are Sacco and Vanzetti? Where is old Medgar Evers? Where is Caesar Chavez? Did they pay the price of the land of the free? America what happened to Leonard Peltier? What price is your liberty? And when you look in the mirror do you see Geronimo Or do you look like McCarthy?

Well it's my country right or wrong From Montezuma to Tripoli But when you live by the sword you die by the sword All your gold won't set you free

America, America What's the cost of the land of the free? Until all swords are pounded into ploughshares Not a single soul can be free

America, America What's the true cost of liberty? Until all swords are pounded into ploughshares Not a single soul will be free.