I broke down crying singing "This Land Is Your Land" yesterday

[no_hypocrisy]

at the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia picnic.

The theme was the 60s. The organizers brought in a singer with a guitar. He had all of us singing folk songs like "Where Have All the Flowers Gone", etc. like a hootenany, most of us 45+ in age.

Got to "This Land" and I couldn't go past the chorus. Instead of being comforted, I was both apoplectic with rage and choked on depression. I couldn't get around where we are right now. The lyrics are almost a cruel reminder, a mockery of where we've been and what has been given away, mostly by our democratic representatives and a passive, apathetic citzenry.

I gotta get past this feeling and do SOMETHING grassroots in order to TRY to change these times.

[Tesla]

1. My children won't know the America my Grandpa and Dad fought to give us.

It takes a small spark to start the Greatest of Engines!!!

[annabanana]

2. I know what you mean...

Sometimes it just catches up with you, what we had, what we've lost...

[Double T]

3. The 'Family Values Crew' has destroyed America and left it without.....

a conscience or soul. It is time to get back to the place where we ALL want to be; this will never happen as long as we continue to let the republicans and neocons win the elections and dictate our lives. I get a lump in my throat every time I see video of the devastation in the Gulf Coast region and the horribly inadequate initial response to human and animal desperation and suffering that has occurred. This is not the America we grew up in and it has NOW become a disgraceful failure. Thank everyone's gods for the citizens that were the true heros and acted to save lives, while the government created roadblocks and resistance to the help.

[CrispyQ]

4. Our country has lost it's humanity.

We're all about money now. And anyway you can get it is rationalized & justified.

[Benhurst]

5. I'm an agnostic; but I believe

"the love of money is the root of all evil."

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. You can't be a Libertarian and sing that song.

It's the Western style Libertarians who are salivating to get their hands on the "our land."