Pages

Sunday 14 August 2011

My Country Tis of Thy People You're Dying: Video-Lyrics



My Country Tis of Thy People You're Dying

Now that your big eyes are finally opened.
Now that you're wondering, "How must they feel?"
Meaning them that you've chased cross America's movie screens;
Now that you're wondering, "How can it be real?"
That the ones you've called colorful, noble and proud
In your school propaganda,
They starve in their splendour.
You asked for our comment, I simply will render:
My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

Now that the long houses "breed superstition"
You force us to send our children away
To your schools where they're taught to despise their traditions
Forbid them their languages;
Then further say that American history really began
When Columbus set sail out of Europe and stress
That the nations of leeches who conquered this land
Were the biggest, and bravest, and boldest, and best.
And yet where in your history books is the tale
Of the genocide basic to this country's birth?
Of the preachers who lied?
How the Bill of Rights failed?
How a nation of patriots returned to their earth?
And where will it tell of the Liberty Bell
As it rang with a thud over Kinzua mud?
Or of brave Unlce Sam in Alaska this year?
My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

Hear how the bargain was made for West,
With her shivering children in zero degrees.
"Blankets for your land" - so the treaties attest.
Oh well, blankets for land, that's a bargain indeed.
And the blankets were those Uncle Sam had collected
From smallpox diseased dying soldiers that day.
And the tribes were wiped out
And the history books censored
A hundred years of your statesmen
say, "It's better this way".
But a few of the conquered have somehow survived
And their blood runs the redder
Though genes have been paled.
From the Grand Canyon's caverns
To Craven's sad hills
The wounded, the losers, the robbed sing their tale.
From Los Angeles County to upstate New York,
The white nation fattens while other grow lean.
Oh the tricked and evicted they know what I mean:
My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

The past it just crumbled; the future just threatens
Our life blood is shut up in your chemical tanks,
And now here you come, bill of sale in your hand
And surprise in your eyes, that we're lacking in thanks
For the blessings of civilisation you brought us
The lessons you've taught us;
The ruin you've wrought us;
Oh see what our trust in America got us.
My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

Now that the pride of the sires receives charity.
Now that we're harmless and safe behind laws.
Now that my life's to be known as your heritage.
Now that even the graves have been robbed.
Now that our own chosen way is your novelty.
Hands on our hearts
We salute you your victory:
Choke on your blue white and scarlet hypocrisy.
Pitying your blindness; How you never see -
that the eagles of war whose wings lent you glory,
Were never no more than buzzards & crows:
Pushed some wrens from their nest;
Stole their eggs; changed their story.
The mockingbird sings it;
It's all that she knows.
"Oh what can I do?", say a powerless few.
With a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye:
Can't you see how their poverty's profiting you?
My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Buffy, thank you for writing this. I had not heard it. People need and want to hear it. The time is ripe for understanding and knowledge. With the Aquarian age beginning in 2012, the most light, love and peace is coming to Earth for everyone. Teachings are still here and will stay. We survived and will stay.
Blessed be.

Anonymous said...

Oh Buffy, this was my spirit song thru the sixties, this and your "Universal Soldier"...some of us DID hear you back then and we are still listening! I saw you more than forty yrs. ago at a festival in Wisconsin, with many rockers, and yours is the only performance I can remember...and I (of those paled genes) am haunted by your words, even more, now, than then. We went to the Stilly Pow Wow and Festival of the River this weekend, at "Sky River Revisited" in WA state...you and those boys gave me goosebumps, brought me to tears, and made me feel happier than I've felt in ages! I'm so glad that you're keepin' on, over all of those mts. that they've made us climb...still tryin' to move the "Movement"...you are the best! Peace, Rose

Ross Plesset said...

This song was played in my home when I was in nursery school. I didn't realize the full meaning of it until two years ago when I stumbled onto it at YouTube. However, certain phrases made an impact on me even as a small child, particularly,"And where will it tell of the Liberty BellAs it rang with a thud..." This may explain why I later had an aversion to saying the Pledge of Allegiance in second grade (and still do). I think of my childhood as somewhat insulated, but some things reached me.

Anonymous said...

AHO

Unknown said...

wonderful !!!