Woody Guthrie

"This Land is My Land, This Land is Your Land"

Woody Guthrie's American Song at Arizona Theater was excellent. The staging, the songs, and the voices were great. Woody wrote the words of the people. Whether it was the victims of the 1930's dust storms and depression, or the miners and 13 children killed by the national guard or the 38 Mexican "deportees" who died in a plane crash returning to Mexico. He was called a socialist and a communist among other things. BUT he was a man who wrote what he saw and what the people told him. An American poet, a folk singer and a man who knew America and it's people.

Much of what he wrote and sang about is still true today. Record bankruptcies and foreclosures. High jobless rate. Many homeless. Flood and famine face many over the last years. Global warming threatens drought which caused the dust balls of the 30's. The rich want only what benefits the rich.