Betrayed

Good Morning from Bodfish Canyon, California...

Thanks to Mark for inviting me to post my thoughts here. By way of introduction, I'll throw up one of my songs. This is a piece that I wrote during the 2000 elections. I was camping out in the deserts of California and Nevada, listening to the Bush/ Gore debates around the campfire on AM radio. I finished the song in a motel room in Las Vegas wtching the Florida recounts on CNN...

Betrayed

by Lost Hills

~

Leaving California,

I gave it all away,

And crossed the great desert

Just to be betrayed.

~

I saw the wreck on the highway,

But I did not stop to pray;

I crossed the great desert

Just to be betrayed.

~

Now I won't say a word against anyone.

We look within and ask ourselves

What has to be done...

When that star rose out of the darkness

Just before the break of day,

I crossed the great desert

Just to be betrayed.

~

I camped upon a ridge above

That city on the plain.

When I crossed the great desert

Just to be betrayed.

I stood alone and watched the lights

Refracting through the rain.

When I crossed the great desert

Just to be betrayed.

~

All men are brothers, underneath the skin.

Why must we spend our lives

Trying to do each other in?

I used to live among them,

But I could not stay...

And I crossed the great desert

Just to be betrayed.

~

When the Saints came down to the valley,

They got down on their knees.

They crossed the great desert

Just to be betrayed.

~

In a land of milk and honey

That could meet their every need,

They crossed the great desert

Just to be betrayed.

~

Now fistfulls of dollars stain every hand.

Divide and conquer is the rule of the land.

There's a wreck on the highway;

Won't somebody pray?

We have crossed the great desert

Just to be betrayed.....

~

Well, it's 5 years down the road, and still feel betrayed. Feel it more and more every day, and I don't feel like praying is enough. Over the last 5 years I have gotten deeper and deeper into activism. As Pete Seeger likes to say, "You've got to Organize..." Sites like this and Acoustic Coffeehouse can be a nexus for just that. We still have some kind of a democracy here, and if we want to keep it we're going to have to fight for it....

peace,

...Lost Hills