If you grow 10,000 acres of peas, for instance, you can afford to sell them at, let's say, $0.50 per pound and still make a profit. That's true, but it also kills local businesses and family farms.įamily farms have to charge more for their crops than big agribusiness due to the economy of scale. It's become a point of pride amongst the working class to eschew buying anything from any source other than Wal-Mart, because those who make enough money to avoid it aren't connected to the working class. We don't make enough money anymore to afford to shop anywhere but Wal-Mart, unless you're in the upper classes, and people wear this fact like a badge of honor. This has happened due to any number of factors, including demand for cheap food (driven by falling wages since the 1970s), government subsidies for big agribusiness that fuel factory farming as opposed to traditional family farms, and general apathy amongst the American people. If you're curious as to what the lyrics to this song mean, you need look no further than the vanishing family farms across the United States. This land fed a nation this land made me so proudĪnd son I'm just sorry they're just memories for you now I feel like dying like that scarecrow in the rain I think about my grandpa and my neighbors and my name and some nights Ninety-seven families who lost ninety-seven farms Well there's ninety-seven crosses planted in the courthouse yard There'll be blood on the scarecrow blood on the plow When you take away a mans dignity he cant work his fields and cows Hey calling it your job ol hoss sure dont make it rightīut if you want me to Ill say a prayer for your soul tonightĪnd grandmas on the front porch swing with aīible in her hand Sometimes I hear her singing take me to the promised land He said john its just my job and I hope you understand The crops we grew last summer weren't enough to pay the loansĬouldn't buy the seed to plant this spring and the farmers bank foreclosedĬalled my old friend schepman up to auction off the land This land fed a nation this land made me proudĪnd son I'm just sorry theres no legacy for you now When I was five I walked the fence while grandpa held my hand I grew up like my daddy did my grandpa cleared this land McCain immediately stopped using both “Pink Houses” and “Our Country” at his events.Scarecrow on a wooden cross blackbird in the barnįour hundred empty acres that used to be my farm We just wrote a letter that said, ‘You guys might want to rethink about using this song,’ and they quit using it.” He added, “We didn’t tell him not to use it. Maybe you guys should rethink using the song.’” Bob said, ‘You know, McCain’s using your song.’ I said ‘Well, he can use it if he wants to, but you probably ought to write him a letter and say, ‘You know, not only that you guys are using it, but so is Barack Obama, so is John Edwards, so is Hillary Clinton, and you should understand that Mellencamp is very liberal, and do you really think that it’s pushing your agenda in the right direction? I mean, you’re just really falling in line with all the other liberal candidates. “What happened was that I called up my publicity guy. As he remembered it, in a 2009 interview with NPR, Mellencamp called up his rep Bob Merlis. First, Ronald Reagan used the song in his 1984 reelection stops, and secondly, in 2008, Republican Senator John McCain used it for many of his political rallies and events.
The song’s meaning has long been misinterpreted.
0 kommentar(er)
