This Land Really is Made for You and Me

[Better Believe It]

Run time: 04:44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg0wiOHc9tI   Posted on YouTube: January 19, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: January 20, 2009 By DU Member: Better Believe It Views on DU: 640

 

January 20, 2009

Commie Chorus on the Mall
This Land Really is Made for You and Me
By DAVE LINDORFF


Maybe symbolism is just symbolism, but the optimist in me says that Barack Obama's invitation to former Communist and life-long political activist Pete Seeger (along with Bruce Springstein and 89-year-old Pete's full-throated grandson Tao) to sing Woody Guthrie's anthem This Land is Your Land, and the fact that the once blacklisted folk legend chose to do not just the feel-good, approved-for-public-school-music-class-use verses, but all the verses, including Woody's long-censored "commie" verses, and that Obama was right there singing those verses along with the rest of the million people on the Mall, has to mean something.

Now, of course, we need to see if there is more to this than just a change in the Washington soundtrack. A good test of Obama's real intentions will be to see if his new administration presses forward with winning passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would finally give workers a decent chance at winning union representation in the workplace. Maybe Woody's old song needs a new verse:

The boss where I'm working is anti-union,
He fires our members, and fights elections.
But with Free Choice we'll defeat his harassment
And win the union contract we all need.

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff01202009.html

[Libertyfirst]

1. Woody and Pete would both applaud that verse. n/t

[mt13]

2. man,...

i was doing amazingly well today, only a little misty-eyed, until i saw this.

[cynthia]

3. and the verse you don't hear often

and the sign there
said No Trespassing
but on the other side
it didn't say anything
That side was made for you and me

[Supply Side Jesus]

4. After Eight long years....

It feel so good to be home again.