Fwd: ZNet Commentary / Ted Glick / This land is your land... / Jan 7

[Doug Millison]

Need a Pynchon hook? His depiction n M&D of the rape of the New World 
(by Europeans, no less) and genocide perpetrated against the Native 
Americans.

This is an American song I like to sing and to hear, instead of the 
Star Spangled Banner, although I do love the way Jimi Hendrix taught 
us to listen to that one.

By the way, Kai, if I were you, I'd focus, too, on the injustices 
that take place in your own back yard (that pesky little neo-Nazi 
resurgence, for starters), there's plenty to keep you busy there 
instead of indulging in anti-American whining.


>From: "Michael Albert" <sysop at zmag.org>
>Subject: ZNet Commentary / Ted Glick / This land is your land... / Jan 7
>Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 19:16:06 -0800

>"This Land Is Your Land?"
>By Ted Glick
>
>Several days ago I was asked to be part of a program next month
>commemorating the 60th anniversary of Woody Guthrie's song, "This Land Is
>Your Land." This got me thinking.
>
>I thought first of the late Jim Dunn. At a conference in Ohio in the
>mid-'80s, Jim was leading a group of us in song. I asked him if he could
>lead us in singing This Land Is Your Land. His response was something to
>this effect (I still remember his words): "Well, I've been working with some
>Native American people in the Southwest recently, and they really don't like
>this song, so I'd rather not sing it."
>
>Every time since then, whenever this song is sung, I've thought of Jim and
>what he said back then.
>
>So when I received a request to be part of this program I started meditating
>on what I would say if I accepted it.
>
>Here's what I've come to. What I would/will probably do is to begin by
>singing an additional verse to this song that I hope Guthrie's descendants,
>those who knew him, and our pro-justice movement generally, would agree
>should be added. This is the proposed new verse:
>
>"This land was stolen from the Native Peoples And they continue to suffer
>still, It's time to right this, it's time for justice, United, we can, we
>must, we will."
>
>There's some personal irony to all of this. Five days ago I began a
>water-only fast in connection with the urgent efforts to free Leonard
>Peltier. We're in crunch time right now as this is written. Peltier,
>innocent of the crime he has been in prison for since 1976, has his best
>chance of being released through a grant of executive clemency from Clinton
>before he leaves office. I am sure that my being on this fast, the constant
>thoughts and/or actions about Peltier and Indigenous People as a result,
>contributed to my ability to even conceive of writing a proposed new verse
>to Guthrie's song.
>
>But there's more.
>
>The inspiration to write this verse literally came while I was in the
>shower. As I jumped out, dripping wet, I rushed to find a pen and something
>to write on so that I didn't lose the words which were coming through me. I
>grabbed a manila envelope in the hall outside the bathroom and wrote them
>down. Then, after drying off and getting dressed, I looked inside the
>envelope. Inside was a picture of my late brother-in-law, Joe Califf, as a
>young child wearing a very full "Indian headdress," with his arms folded,
>looking very serious, obviously posed to look like an "Indian chief."
>
>My wife's, Joe's parents, were not racists. Indeed, they were long-time
>progressives going back to the '30s. Until they died, they were as active as
>they could be in support of a wide range of pro-justice issues, including
>issues specific to people of color. And yet, back in the '40s and '50s, when
>this picture, and Guthrie's song, were taken and written, there seems to
>have been very little consciousness on the Left about issues of importance
>to Indigenous People.
>
>So what does all this mean?
>
>I like This Land Is Your Land. I still sing it, even as, every time I do, I
>think about what Jim Dunn said. Maybe I've been wrong to continue singing
>it, but it's hard to deal with everything that is racist, or sexist, or
>heterosexist that we're exposed to in this society. Besides, I don't think
>Guthrie meant in any way to express white chauvinism. My hunch is that, if
>he were alive today, he would take Jim Dunn's words seriously and maybe do
>up a new verse himself, or revise the song.
>
>But he's not alive, and it's incumbent on those of us who are to carry on
>the pro-justice tradition in every way that we can. One of those ways is to
>"correct," upgrade, if you will, songs, expressions, cultural patterns, ways
>of speaking and doing, that are offensive to those long-exploited or
>oppressed. And we need to do so in consultation with the people in those
>victimized groups.
>
>I hope to hear from my Native American friends on what they think of all of
>this.
>
>P.S. We should all be calling the White House comment line every day to
>express our view that Peltier should be granted executive clemency before
>Clinton leaves office. Call 202-456-1111, and press "O" to bypass the
>messages and go directly to an operator. More information can be obtained
>from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, 785-842-5774, lpdc at idir.net,
>www.freepeltier.org.
>
>  Ted Glick is National Coordinator of the Independent Progressive Politics
>Network (www.ippn.org) and author of the recently-published, Future Hope: A
>Winning Strategy for a Just Society. He can be reached at
>futurehopeTG at aol.com, or at P.O. Box 1132, Bloomfield, N.J. 07003.

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