Some things never change in the Central Valley

I was reading about Railroad Cops roughing up homeless people in Fresno and reflecting on how things never seem to change around here. California is a "Garden of Eden," Yeah, but only if you've got the "Do Re Mi..."

The San Joaquin Valley has a long history of abusing the homeless. Ask Preacher Casey. Ask Tom Joad... John Steinbeck put us on the map, but our civic leaders were not happy with the images he painted of cops and vigilantees driving the dust bowl refugees from town to town "like a wild herd of cattle." The Grapes Of Wrath was banned in Bakersfield for years, and was not allowed to be used in Kern County Classrooms until 1974. Now we have learned to accept our dust bowl heritage with pride. Local museums and festivals celebrate our history, but have we learned anything from it? Can we learn to recognize that the outsiders who can't seem to hold down a regular job or live like the rest of us are our brothers and sisters? Our instinct, when we encounter the the dirty and unkempt refugees of American society is not to lend them a helping hand. It is to look down, look the other way and walk on... And if they hang around too long or start talking about their "rights," the instinct is to beat them up and force them to move on.

Woody Guthrie passed through here, and he wrote about it better than anyone before or since. Vigilante Man, Pastures Of Plenty, Do Re Mi, Dust Bowl Refugee, Ramblin' Round, Hard Travelin', I Ain't Got No Home... We can listen to these great ballads as historical artifacts, but that's not what they are. Shamefully, and Disgracefully, they are today's news. They are the headlines that the editors of the Fresno Bee and tha Bakersfield Californian will not place on the front page, or any other page. They are a mirror, and the face of the Vigilante Man looking back at us is you and I. As long as we allow our brothers and sisters to be treated thisaway...

Vigilante Man
Woody Guthrie

Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
I've been hearing his name all over the land.

Well what is a vigilante man?
Tell me, what is a vigilante man?
Has he got a gun and a club in his hand?
Is that a vigilante man.

Rainy night down in the engine house.
Sleepin' just as still as a mouse.
Along come a man, and chased us out in the rain.
Was that a vigilante man?

Stormy days we passed the night away
Sleepin' in some good warm place.
Man come along and chased us out in the rain.
Was that a Vigilante Man?

Preacher Casey was just a workin' man.
And he said, "Unite, all you workin' men."
Killed him in the river, some strange man.
Was that a Vigilante Man?

I rambled round from town to town.
I rambled round fron town to town.
And they herded us around like a wild herd of cattle.
Was that the vigilante men?

Oh, why does a Vigilante Man,
Why does a vigilante man,
Carry that sawed-off shotgun in his habd?
Would he shoot his brother and sister down?

Some things never change...

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