“This land is my land” was requested by a radio guest today. She was American and political, famous as a cook (forget the name) and lent her support to Clinton, and others up to Obama. I have probably heard the song before without listening to the words or really registering what it was about.
[i]This Land Is Your Land
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie
This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood 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’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.
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?
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.[/i]
It was written by Woody Guthrie and has more recently been sung by Bruce Springsteen.
It just drips with emotion, the most appalling sentimentality. It’s obvious that that is its appeal to politicians.
What stuck me was how monumentally offensive it was to the Native Americans! It is such a white man’s song. It is the white colonists claiming America for themselves, as though God had created the land just for them and, well, the Native Americans might just as well not exist, nor ever have existed.
Anyone else think Obama, Clinton and the others ought to be strung up for using that song to whip up the emotions of their supporters, and, presumably to actually gain support?
Sorry, I did put it in bad phrasing.
So that makes us both as native American as anyone else born here. Time of birth is irrelevant as is ethnicity.
Some folks just do not grasp this.
Quite likely but, then again I have American Indian ancestors.
All natives in the Americas are descended from immigrants and violence. Any born in the Americas are Americans.
Yes, to your second question. Woodie Guthrie was a protest folk-song writer from the 1930’s, wasn’t he? Wasn’t he a part of the Socialist movement at the time?
If you mention anyone who was part of the '30’s socialist movement, now, the word ‘socialism’ is associated with that movement. It brings up old fears of communism and the Cold War era. Socialism is anathema to ‘true’ Americans. Are native Americans the only ‘true’ Americans? Only if you go back over 150 years to when Manifest Destiny became the by-words for expansionism in the US.
But didn’t American Indians–a tribal society–‘take care’ of their tribes? Didn’t they protect their ‘territories’ and have wars against other tribes in order to preserve tribal culture and hunting grounds?
I’m getting very tired of veiled political messages that keep recurring in what’s supposed to be non-political venues. Perhaps another forum topic devoted to political messages should be established. The messages would then, at least, be overt.
The person that did the OP tends to poke at USA. Inaccurately to boot.
That is the primary reason for the thread. Perhaps the question should be :Why the resentment?
Yes, and to further that, each member of each tribe took care of himself, often at the direct expense of other members.
I agree that it’s very much a political message being made here. The Indians, among many other groups, have been very good at gaining power through duplicity over the last 50 years. In the long term they aren’t helping anyone, not even themselves with the lies and backwards logic they use to further themselves.
The word ‘native’ can be defined as one’s place of birth, in which case you’re right and anyone who wants to restrict the term ‘native American’ to Indians is a jackass, and the word can be defined to mean having evolved in a region, in which case Indians would be the only native Americans. ‘Indigenous’ might seem better fitted for the latter, but even that term can simply refer to place of birth.
It’s worth mentioning that any life form besides humans are not consider native or indigenous to a region unless they evolved there. I think the confusion present in those two terms is appreciated by those who wish to further themselves by obscuring the issues.
I disagree that ethnicity isn’t important, but I don’t give a damn if Indians are offended by that claim. It takes a lot of nerve for people of one ethnicity to expect people of other ethnicities to go out of there way to recognize and respect their ethnicity, when they won’t return the favor.
I think its more about your great great granddaddy beat mine up, now you must pay attitude. Its the same attitude as slavery. For some dumb schoolyard reason we should pay for what we did not do. And feel guilty while we are at it. Its just flatout goofy.
If I had a great Grandfather who persecuted Indians, and I knew one of the Indians’ grandchildren, I would avoiding looking him in the eyes. And if I had a close relative that got swindled out of some land due to a crooked reparations/gaming deal by some Indians, and I met one of the beneficiaries of that deal, I’d be right in staring him down.
But, we’re talking about unspecified wrongs, by unspecified people. It is goofy, it’s a power play that while effective is about as ridiculous as screaming and pounding the pavement.
