Comments on: Woody Guthrie: A Little Recession Music, Please

By: Annie

Annie — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:10:02 +0000

When I was a little girl, my Dad played Woody Guthrie songs on his guitar for me. The words were powerful and influential (and silly and fun.) Everyone who reads this article should read up on, or better yet, listen to Woody. It will impact and inspire you too!

By: Hue Longer

Hue Longer — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:29:28 +0000

Thanks Mickey for your response to Joshua,

I’m all for hero killing but like to point out to folks that the man is never the message to begin with. Truth is truth and just because woody may have been a dick, it doesn’t mean that 2+2 doesn’t equal 4 because he said it.

Cheers

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 15:00:34 +0000

Tax and 100% dividend. A “carbon tax with 100 percent dividend” is required for
reversing the growth of atmospheric CO2. The tax, applied to oil, gas and coal at the mine or
port of entry, is the fairest and most effective way to reduce emissions and transition to the
post fossil fuel era. It would assure that unconventional fossil fuels, such as tar shale and tar
sands, stay in the ground, unless an economic method of capturing the CO2 is developed.
The entire tax should be returned to the public, equal shares on a per capita basis (half
shares for children up to a maximum of two child-shares per family), deposited monthly in
bank accounts. No bureaucracy is needed.
A tax should be called a tax. The public can understand this and will accept a tax if it is
clearly explained and if 100 percent of the money is returned to the public. Not one dime
should go to Washington for politicians to pick winners. No lobbyists need be employed. Hansen

Money money money. The money we now see going to the very very few in trillions is tax payer money whatever that is looks good on paper and the reason they are getting this money is because power tends to corrupt. So far what chance does that plan that Hansen put forth have, none. I will say it again when El Nino comes back as it has started to do it will be a look into future and should be an eye opener. The time is now and we will not wait tomorrow started yesterday and we are already late one voice and to do this the system must change no other way it’s a nobrainer. Of course the lobbyists who work for the very very few will being trying there best to keep getting that money money money and keeping the system the same the very system that got us to this point in time and space. It’s the history channel I can’t help it. Think of this as kind of a war.

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 13:48:09 +0000

Money money money money
Money money money money
Money money money…

power tends to corrupt and the way things are going there will only be a very very few very very corrupt.

By: Mickey Z.

Mickey Z. — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 02:20:34 +0000

Thanks, all. In the interest of fairness and balance, I’d like to share something Joshua Frank e-mailed me yesterday: “Don’t be so kind to Woody, the pawn of the Dept. of Interior. He wrote songs promoting the construction of dams along the Columbia River, which kicked out native peoples and eventually led to the virtual extinction of the large salmon populations. He didn’t once step up to defend the natives or the environment. The power that came from the dam rolled on up to Hanford, the infamous H-Bomb factory. Guthrie ain’t no hero, he was a blatant supporter of cultural genocide.”

By: Deadbeat

Deadbeat — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:29:00 +0000

I miss Public Enemy.

By: bozh

bozh — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:05:01 +0000

i wonder why i haven’t heard of woody guthry until just a decade. an dnow i know why.
as an unpaid songwriter, i understand how hard it is to write a song that rhymes and deliver’s a potent message.
here’s the ending of one of my songs:
stand up, and look them in eyes
and tell them, no more lies

By: HR

HR — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:46:13 +0000

I suspect Woody would have come up with some great lyrics regarding the lies being circulated about how union workers are to blame for the high price of cars and trucks, lies that are supposed to make us blame unionized working-class “greed” for all the problems facing the poor old auto companies — and, by extension, blame it for all our problems … just get rid of organized labor, and all will be well is the fascist message we are supposed to believe.

I bet that in those lyrics, Woody would point out that a large part of the cost of anything sold lies in the labor required to assemble it, the labor to mine the resources, transport them, refine them, machine them into the final product designed by yet other laboring folks. He wouldn’t have needed to read Adam Smith to figure that out either.

Woody would undoubtedly have a few choice words for the modern robber barons whose only goal is profit, at the expense of labor, those who cut costs by moving their factories to places where sweatshop labor is the norm. I swear, it is time for our government, supposedly of, by, and for us the people to place a bounty on the heads of the wealthy scum who keep us in bondage.