Monday, September 06, 2004
Whose Land Is It, Anyway?In case you're one of the few who haven't checked out JibJab's excellent bipartisan spoof "This Land," I recommend you click here to do so now.
The Richmond Organization, the company with the rights to Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," are maybe the only people in America unhappy with JibJab's three-minute masterpiece. They may sue because they feel the cartoon "threatens to corrupt Guthrie's classic, an icon of Americana--by tying it to a political joke; upon hearing the music people would think about the yucks, not Guthrie's unifying message." No doubt they're referring to the message of these familiar lyrics: Chorus:
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 a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
I've roamed and rambled and I've 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
Chorus
The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me
Chorus But as this article points out, the message Guthrie intended was far from "unifying." Check out the last two verses (which are seldom sung nowadays):As I went rambling that dusty highway
I saw a sign that said "private property"
But on the other side it didn't say nothing
This side was made for you and me
In the squares of the city, in the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office, I see my people
And some were stumbling and some were wondering
If this land was made for you and me Not exactly "God Bless America," is it? I think Woody Guthrie understood America quite well, and loved his country. But he saw problems with America, the way only someone who loves something deeply can see those problems.
Today, when most Americans don't even know why they get a three-day weekend every year towards the end of summer, it's vital to reflect on the role of Labor and the common man in our society.
I'm sure a lot of right-leaning Americans would be horrified to learn that Labor Day celebrations originally were intended to show "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations."
I wonder whether, learning the true origins and meaning of the day, good conservatives might feel compelled not to take the day off? That's allright, fellows, even if you don't believe in Unions, you're still free to enjoy the hard-won benefits union members have earned for all of us by putting their jobs—and in many cases, their lives—on the line.
This land was made for all of us—but we'll get to keep it only if we, like the heroes of Labor before us, have the courage to stand up, stand together and assert our rights.
Otherwise, we'll end up with one land for the rich, and another, inferior land for the rest of us. We've moved in that direction for many years now, but I have faith that we're about to reverse the trend. November's elections will tell a lot about whether Americans truly understand what's at stake.
Happy Labor Day, everybody.
Posted by Me at 21:45 link
|
