Woody Guthrie
“This Land Is Your Land”
The Asch Recordings Vol. 1
1997 | Smithsonian Folkways

As economists sweat (and fail) to stabilize the financial sector, I more than ever wish someone had informed W. a long time ago that the Magic 8 Ball was not designed for governance. As the term “shore up” reverberates, a dire animosity has been burgeoning shore to shore. It’s Their Fault in all those jobless Red states that my Blue state has been tanking, that we are involved in an illegitimate war, that we do not have guaranteed health care, that our environment is in a shambles, that I have to worry about my reproductive freedoms, that so many minority groups still face major discrimination, I think. Yet, even as I denounce, a certain persistent, if admittedly surly, humanist tendency has been tugging at the increasingly threadbare sleeve of my empathy. Ultimately, it never lessens anyone’s collective suffering to wish for others to suffer more. Perhaps this explains why, even though in accordance with this particular global crisis I could lamentingly review “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?,” I have been ruminating over another American classic of antiquated timeliness, the beloved anthem of earnestly screeching kindergarteners across the country: “This Land Is Your Land.”
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