Friday, August 22, 2008

A White House lawn that produces something

Well, a few days ago Herb and I were listening to the Across The Great Divide radio program on KPFA public radio (we listen online, as the local programming is many times so trite and boring). We ended up discussing, as senior citizens will do, the question of whether the younger generations will have any concept of who Woody Guthrie was and the relevance of his times to our own.
Then this week I opened up an e-mail from Kitchen Gardeners International, and there on the Youtube video that Roger Doiron produced as a part of his scheme to promote kitchen gardens in front yards, beginning with The White House (or, shall I say, OUR White House) was the voice from the past, Woody Guthrie singing his most well known folk song, This Land Is Your Land.



How populist.
How did we forget so many sustainable ways of living in such a short time?
But we live in an age when Newt Gingrich says his goal in life is to rescind the New Deal, and Rush Limbaugh says 'Roosevelt is dead and we're getting rid of his programs as well', and our twice "elected" president thinks he won a mandate to end Social Security while Congress guts New Deal financial regulations, and a candidate can run for office while voting against children's health and education programs without risking the slightest blow back from his self-described "moral voters".
The New Deal worked, and any politician worth his salt should look at what some of those programs were, and give We The People an updated new deal. We've been getting a raw deal under Reaganomics.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Um-hm, I'm with ya! Wanted to tell you I grew up in Okemah, Oklahoma. Which is where Woody Guthrie is from. Of course growing up there, no one really talked about him. Didn't take to his ways with the old folks of that time. Funny now...
Brenda

Summer said...

Go Betsy! I agree:) Working in the nonprofit field, I really feel it. It makes growing things in the simplicity of sunshine and dirt seem more important than ever... finding truth in blossoms and trustworthiness in something as simple as a seed. Reminds me that honesty always exist somewhere. :)

Anonymous said...

E-mail me the Petition to Sign and more info.

Thanks,

City Girl with a Country-Girl Heart
Rachel9349@yahoo.com

Betsy said...

You're a little late, CGwaCH. Michelle Obama and a bunch of students have planted and are already harvesting from a veggie garden on the WH lawn. (Check the date on the post.)