Sacco and Vanzetti Murdered August 23, 1927

Shortly after midnight on August 23, 1927, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were murdered in the electric chair by the US state of Massachusetts. Italian born anarchists, they were railroaded during a trial for robbery and murder in 1921 that was widely admitted -- even at the time -- as being rigged with a verdict based on their background and political beliefs as opposed to their "guilt".

The electrocutions occurred despite years of appeals both in the courts and in the international court of public opinion. Their killings led to protests and riots worldwide.

In 1979, on the 50th anniversary of their murders, Sacco and Vanzetti were acknowledged to have been victims of an unfair process and exonerated by Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.

Following an idea of American folk singer icon Woody Guthrie, another iconic folk singer Pete Seeger adapted Sacco's powerful last letter to his son Dante into song lyrics:

If nothing happens, they will electrocute us right after midnight
Therefore here I am right with you, with love and with open heart, as I was yesterday
Don't cry, Dante, for many, many tears have been wasted
As your mother's tears have been already wasted for seven years
And never did any good
So, son, instead of crying, be strong, be brave
So as to be able to comfort your mother
And when you want to distract her from the discouraging soulness
You take her for a long walk in the quiet countryside
Gathering flowers here and there
And resting under the shade of trees, beside the music of the waters
The peacefulness of nature, she will enjoy it very much
And you will surely, too
But, son, you must remember: Don't use all yourself
But down yourself, just one step
To help the weak ones at your side
The weaker ones that cry for help, the persecuted and the victim
They are your friends, friends of yours and mine
They are the comrades that fight -- yes, and sometimes fall
Just as your father, your father and Bartolo, have fallen
Have fought and fell, yesterday, for the conquest of joy
Of freedom for all
In the struggle of life you'll find, you'll find more love
And in the struggle, you will be loved also

 Equally moving is the last letter of Vanzetti to Dante which read in part:

I tell you now that all that I know of your father, he is not a criminal, but one of the bravest men I ever knew. Some day you will understand what I am about to tell you. That your father has sacrificed everything dear and sacred to the human heart and soul for his fate in liberty and justice for all. That day you will be proud of your father, and if you come brave enough, you will take his place in the struggle between tyranny and liberty and you will vindicate his (our) names and our blood.
If we have to die now, you shall know, when you will be able to understand this tragedy in its fullest, how good and brave your father has been with you, your father and I, during these eight years of struggle, sorrow, passion, anguish and agony...
...Remember, Dante, remember always these things; we are not criminals; they convicted us on a frame-up; they denied us a new trial; and if we will be executed after seven years, four months and seventeen days of unspeakable tortures and wrong, it is for what I have already told you; because we were for the poor and against the exploitation and oppression of the man by the man.

Pete Seeger sings Sacco's Letter to his Son:

This Land is Your Land as realized by Kathy Jakobsen -- A wonderful children's book for all ages revisited

15 years ago this month the second edition of a truly beautiful and moving illustrated book dedicated to Woody Guthrie's great classic, This Land is Your Land, was released to celebrate what would have been Guthrie's 90th year. It came with a CD that had 9 of Guthrie's best known songs.


While technically a children's book, this award-winning adaptation will appeal to Guthrie fans and dreamers of all ages.

The book comes with an introduction by Guthrie's daughter Nora, a tribute written by Pete Seeger, and a brief outline of Guthrie's life. But the star is the song itself magnificently brought to the page by the simply stunning paintings of Kathy Jakobsen.

Jakobsen was given access to the Guthrie archives and used them to great effect as you can read in Nora's "note".

Jakobsen's art is an almost dreamlike evocation of the song's meaning and love of an America that could have been, that maybe could be, but that never really was. Of a hope and possibility not realized.

The paintings stretch from coast-to-coast ( as does the song ) and many of them are not simply richly detailed but also have various panels that try to capture the vastness and diversity that lies "From California to the New York island, From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters".  There are often little quotes at the corners.

Here are just a few examples:

It contains the original "no trespassing" (or sometimes sung as "private property") lyrics that are often left out.

The book pays tribute to some of the many artists who have covered Guthrie's songs and tried to keep his vision alive:

But in perhaps the book's most powerful moment Jakobsen juxtaposes an imagery of the United States as it has all too often been, despite its great promise and wealth, with a representation of an America of community, co-operation, healing and progress.

These paintings and this juxtaposition continues to move me often to tears despite many years of having read this book to my children (as well as sometimes simply to myself) as they grew.

You can order copies of this specific edition off of sites like Amazon or Ebay and can order a deluxe 10th anniversary edition of this wonderful book from woodyguthrie.org

And remember, wherever you live in whatever country whose borders have been arbitrarily imposed upon the planet, this land is your land, this land was made for you and me.




See also: The Little Clay Hut -- A Soviet Adaptation of a Russian Children's Tale by Alexei Tolstoi

See also: Mergen and His Friends: A Nanai Folk Tale - A Vintage Soviet Children's Fable

Deportee

Deportee


The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting,
The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;
They're flying 'em back to the Mexican border
To pay all their money to wade back again



Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,
All they will call you will be "deportees"

My father's own father, he waded that river,
They took all the money he made in his life;
My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees,
And they rode the truck till they took down and died.

Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted,
Our work contract's out and we have to move on;
Six hundred miles to that Mexican border,
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.

We died in your hills, we died in your deserts,
We died in your valleys and died on your plains.
We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes,
Both sides of the river, we died just the same.

The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, "They are just deportees"

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil
And be called by no name except "deportees"?

(aka. "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos")
Words by Woody Guthrie, Music by Martin Hoffman

What's past is prologue