Peter, Paul & Mary’s cease-and-desist to NOM: Stop playing “This Land Is Your Land”

[Joanne98]

By Kathleen Perrin

As we all know, the National Organization for Marriage’s ironically named “Summer for Marriage” tour ended recently and Courage Campaign’s NOM Tour Tracker team was there throughout. The team documented both NOM speakers’ messages of exclusion and discrimination and the powerful demonstrations by the people who stood up to NOM and spoke in support of marriage equality.

All along the tour we saw, time and again, how NOM inverted the truth, portraying themselves as the oppressed instead of the oppressor. NOM’s president Brian Brown even made the outrageous claim that he follows in the footsteps of Martin Luther King as the leader of a new civil rights movement.

In keeping with this twisted version of the truth, NOM played a Peter, Paul & Mary recording of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” during their rallies. You can hear the song being played in the background of this YouTube video showing marriage equality supporters walking away from their counter-protest at the end of NOM’s tour stop in Albany:

http://prop8trialtracker.com/2010/08/27/peter-paul-and-marys-cease-and-desist-to-nom-stop-playing-this-land-is-your-land/

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Side note: PP&M played at the MLK "Dream"speech in '63. Good people. n/t

[66 dmhlt]

5. Don't think this is from that ...

But you get the idea:



They sang "If I Had a Hammer" and "Blowing in the Wind"

On a sadder note, from Mary Travers' obituary almost a year ago now: "Mary was born on November 7, 1936. She died on September 16, 2009, aged 72 from leukemia."

[nilram]

7. But I bet it is

Enlarging it, the clothing style is the same as I've seen in films from that day, and the crowd is definitely mixed race. Right setting for it. I googled all around, though, and couldn't find a credit for the photo.

[lob1]

2. Some rogues used to call them Peter, Paul and Mounds.

I wouldn't do that myself.

[unblock]

3. the "no trespassing" verse that would make teabaggers' heads explode:

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me

http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/This_Land.htm

[Bluenorthwest]

4. More Woody words they would reject:

One bright sunny morning, in the shadow of the steeple,
By the relief office I saw my people,
As they stood there hungry, I stood there wondering if,
This land was made for you and me.

Was a big high wall there that tried to stop me,
Was a great big sign that said, "Private Property,"
But on the other side, it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking my freedom highway,
Nobody living can make me turn back,
This land was made for you and me.

[awoke_in_2003]

6. good...

more artists should do this.

[handmade34]

8. good... more action is needed