This just in from poet and metaphysician Charles Upton on the Bundy Ranch stand-off.
Dear Kevin,
Here's a little something I just wrote today. A friend sent me an email about how the Feds stole a herd of cattle from that Nevada rancher, and how militias from around the U.S. are coming to his aid. It looks like a range war may be shaping up. That made me remember Woody Guthrie's song "Ranger's Command", and think how perfectly appropriate it is for the present circumstances. Woody, a darling of the Left, who put a sign on his guitar reading "this machine kills Fascists", wrote a song that's totally in the spirit of a cause now being adopted by the Right-wing militias.
And here's the thing I wrote:
CREDO
When the Leftists or the Communists stand with the oppressed against the oppressor, then I am a
Leftist and a Communist.
When the Tea party activists or the Patriots stand with the oppressed against the oppressor, then
I am a Patriot and a Tea party man.
When the Left is the oppressor, I am a Right-winger; when the Right is the oppressor I am of the
Left—
But no—forget that. What I really want to say is: to hell with Left and Right, they don’t mean
anything anymore.
The real fight is not between Left and Right but between Up and Down.
Wherever the oppressors are, I am against them. Wherever the downtrodden are, I am with them.
My ideology is not Liberal or Conservative, Communist or Fascist; it is only this:
That whoever exalts himself will be humbled; that whoever humbles himself will be exalted;
That those who hunger and thirst for justice are blest, for they will be satisfied;
That the downtrodden, those whose faces are ground into the earth, are also blest, for they shall
inherit the earth.
Labels: blm, bundy ranch, charles upton, cowboys, militias, nevada, ranger's command, revolution, woody guthrie