by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Woody Guthrie was not only a legendary folksinger and songwriter, he was also an environmentalist and social activist whose work encapsulated the struggles of the common man during the Great Depression and beyond. Guthrie wrote a song in 1940 which told the American story in a way only someone as insightful and talented as he could tell it. That song, "This Land Is Your Land," has evolved over the years into an American classic and what many regard as our second national anthem.
The song is so well known and revered that Missouri Senator Josh Hawley thought it would be a slick idea to link it to a piece of legislation that he had drafted. The "This Land Is Our Land Act" (S. 684), would ban Chinese corporations and individuals associated with the Chinese Communist Party from owning United States agricultural land.
Hawley, no doubt, was pleased with himself for co-opting the spirit of Woody Guthrie to help promote his bill, but Guthrie's family was not happy that a politician like Josh Hawley would try to benefit by glomming onto their father's work.
Guthrie's daughter, Nora, issued a statement last Monday to Hawley's hometown newspaper, The Kansas City Star, in which she said that the late performer's family rejected Hawley's use of the song in his legislation. The daughter described hr father's song as a "vision of democracy," and said that it reiterates the concept of "by the people, for the people.." She added:
"We do not consider Josh Hawley in any way a representative of Woody's values, therefore we would never endorse or approve of his reference to Woody's lyrics."
When told of the Guthrie family's objection to Hawley using their father's work to dress up his legislation, a Hawley spokesperson replied by attacking the Kansas City Star with the tired old saw that it (the Star) is where "journalism goes to die."
Sadly Hawley and his staff are no better at name-calling than they are at stealing lyrics!
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