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Have you ever wondered why the United States still celebrates a national holiday honoring the guy who initiated the genocide of the native American peoples? The man who sold girls into sexual slavery, burned escaped slaves alive, and had babies killed for dog food? I have. I’ve wondered about it quite a bit.
It seems to me that Columbus Day’s continued place on the U.S. calendar is not an oversight. We sweep the holocaust under the rug so that underlying myths, such as Manifest Destiny and Social Darwinism can continue to justify today’s more civilized forms of injustice, exploitation and inhumanity.
Holidays such as Columbus Day and Thanksgiving are threads in a vast cultural tapestry stretching from San Salvador to Plymouth Rock, from Wounded Knee to Wall Street, and from Capitalism to Corporatocracy. National myths such as the Horatio Alger story still resonate today, as evidenced in this recent statement by Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain:
“Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself. It is not a person’s fault if they succeeded, it is a person’s fault if they failed.”
I dedicate the following song and video to the 99% Movement, which is single-handedly working to excise these type of toxic myths from the American heart, mind and soul.
Columbus Day Performed by fourworlds Source video from the Prelinger Archives
by David Elfanbaum
They set sail across the water for country and for queen
To find a new horizon that no white man had seen
They brought with them their armor, their cannon and disease
And laid waste to a people that had thrived for centuries
We built this country on their blood and their bones
We found our destiny and took their lives and homes
So why do we celebrate Columbus Day
We found a New World and we took their world away
They set sail across the ocean fleeing country and king
For their religious freedom they would do most anything
They came to this great land and claimed it for their kind
With guns and broken treaties that have brought us to this time
We built this country on their blood and their bones
We found our destiny and took their lives and homes
So why do we celebrate Thanksgiving Day
We found a New World and we took their world away
Now we fly across the oceans with stealth and guile we creep
To maximize our profit and go where labor’s cheap
With lawyers, guns and money we take what we please
Leaving fast food restaurants in exchange for clear cut trees
We built this country on their blood and their bones
We found our destiny and took their lives and homes
So why do we celebrate Columbus Day
We found a New World and we took their world away
It’s sad to say that this twenty year old song I wrote during the Presidential election campaign of 1992 is even more applicable today than it was then.
I was inspired to revive it by the Occupy Wall Street movement. The video is composed of clips from Occupy Wall Street video out on YouTube and some old footage from the Prelinger Archives.
Greed (Let ‘em Starve)
Why should my hard earned dollars go to feed some shirker’s kid?
Maybe watching their belly swell would teach them what they did.
If they can’t feed their family working sixty hours a week,
Let ‘em work 100, there’s no god-given right to sleep. Let ‘em Starve!
There’s no such thing as prejudice, everyone gets their fair shot.
Look at all the laundries and restaurants the boat people all got.
If those bums living on the dole would just get off their lazy cans,
They could all be executives or empty my trash cans. Let ‘em Starve!
So if you’re sick and poor just go away,
Cause you don’t deserve a doctor if you cannot pay.
If your daddy’s poor and you mamma’s on crack,
You should have the moral fibre to stay on the track.
If you’re handicapped or crazy that’s not my concern,
Don’t go looking for a handout, don’t have money to burn.
So for all you losers, it may sound cruel,
But keep your lazy genes out of my gene pool. Let ‘em Starve.
NYMWARS Comics. This is the e-book version from issuu.com and will update automatically with new additions.
Little Google Boxes: A Nymwars Protest Song. A multi-identity Botgirl/fourworlds collaboration. For those of you unfamiliar with the issue, there are links to dozens of great articles here.
