Shalom, Chaverim!
THIS LAND (RELEARNING HISTORY)
(Words & Music © 2020 by Tom Emanuel)
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island
The words they taught me when I was younger
Y’know, I always loved that song
That shining vision of a place for everyone
No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done
And they told me my land was a city on a hill
But never thought to mention whose it was before I came along
They were rewriting history
In the way that they believed that it should go
No responsibility
For the role that we had played, I didn’t know
That nobody is illegal
On another’s stolen land
So teach me some humility
I’ll listen now and try to understand
I was a young man, I walked the mountains
Their endless skyways and crystal fountains
Their pinewood forests and sacred places
I was a Child in these Black Hills
A voice it spoke to me deep down inside my bones
Saying this will always be your one true home
But now I hear the pain of scars upon the land
And that memory inside of me is speaking to me still
Saying, relearn your history
From the way that you were taught that it should go
Take responsibility
For the role that you have played, until you know
That nobody is illegal
On another’s stolen land
Son, learn you some humility
You listen now and try to understand
[Instrumental]
If you could hear me, old Woody Guthrie
I know you’d tell me that wasn’t what y’mean
This land’s for everyone, not just us white of skin
But history’s easy to forget
And I remember how my own family
Once left old Ireland and sailed across the sea
Because a conqueror had taken everything
And left them nothing but regret
And now I see those words on the Statue of Liberty
“Give me your tired, your poor, give me your hungry
Give me every lonely soul that’s yearning to breathe free
And I’m wanting to believe
That there’s a home somewhere out there for everyone
That you don’t need to protect behind a gun
No walls or hate or greed, no colonies of fear
Just children of the selfsame God
A land that’s made for all, not just for you and me
And I’m relearning history
From the way that I was taught that it should go
Taking responsibility
For the role that I have played, and now I know
That nobody is illegal
On another’s stolen land
I’m learning some humility
I’m listening until I understand