The Horrible Act of Dehumanizing Others

Woody Guthrie, the conscience of our nation, once even wrote a song about a Trump. But this song haunts me, especially in these evil days...

Plane Wreck at Los Gatos

(also known as "Deportee")

Words by Woody Guthrie, Music by Martin Hoffman

The crops are all in and the peaches are rott'ning,

The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;

They're flying 'em back to the Mexican border

To pay all their money to wade back again

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,

Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;

You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,

All they will call you will be "deportees"

My father's own father, he waded that river,

They took all the money he made in his life;

My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees,

And they rode the truck till they took down and died.

Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted,

Our work contract's out and we have to move on;

Six hundred miles to that Mexican border,

They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.

We died in your hills, we died in your deserts,

We died in your valleys and died on your plains.

We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes,

Both sides of the river, we died just the same.

The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,

A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,

Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?

The radio says, "They are just deportees"

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?

Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?

To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil

And be called by no name except "deportees"?

Here is a version sung by Joan Baez, Mary Chapin Carpenter and the Indigo Girls:

Lady Gaga, Woody Guthrie, and the Times We're Living In

Lady Gaga has never been mentioned in my blog before, but she earned my deepest respect yesterday when she included the Woody Guthrie song "This Land is Your Land" to open the Super Bowl half-time show. Because generations of children learned the song in primary school, it has become so familiar that it is easy to forget that the song is a populist protest anthem of the people. And it has become more than appropriate to remember the song as we face the political situation of the present day. We face huge threats, not from terrorists, not from foreign powers, but from those who now control the apparatus of our own government, and who want to twist the power of that government to profit a handful of oligarchs.

This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.

I read these lyrics and think proudly of the beautiful lands that we've set aside for the enjoyment of all our people, and those who visit from across the planet. Not just our national parks, but all of the national monuments, national wildlife refuges, and state parks across the country. And yet at this very moment, there is a movement in Congress to sell off some of our precious lands to private interests, to let the fossil fuel industry drill without regulation. One of the most beautiful landscapes in our country was set aside in the closing days of the Obama administration, and now there are those trying to remove protection from the Bear's Ears National Monument and others.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.

But the song is much more than a paean to the beauty of our land. Our people are precious too, all of them. The song was written in the depths of the Great Depression, when more than a quarter of the population was unemployed and hungry. The oligarchs didn't care then, and they don't care today. The people who came to California looking for a better life were mistreated then just as they are today, whether they came from Oklahoma and Texas in the 1930s, or from Mexico in the present day.

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Others added to the protest. I'm not sure who wrote it, but this verse was taught to me 45 years ago:

This land is your land, but it once was my land,

Until we sold you Manhattan Island.

You pushed our Nations to the reservations;

This land was stole by you from me.

The last verse from Woody honors not the freedom to roam the highways, but anyone who fights to have the rights reserved for all Americans, and in case we've forgotten, the rights of all people worldwide to live free:

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

If you ever want to understand true populism, the kind that isn't sold like snake oil by wanna-be dictators, then embrace all the meaning of this incredible song. In these times, this should be our national anthem. It celebrates the people and the land, not military victories. The real strength of our country comes not from military conquest, but the preservation and promotion of freedom for all.