That old song by Woody Guthrie is nice enough. Catchy tune and all. Easy to sing along with. But it couldn’t be further from the truth. It starts out,
“This land is your land, and this land is my land
From California to the New York Island….”
Technically. It is not our land. Oh sure. Some of us may “own” a piece of land in the United States. But in general terms? From California to New York? Well, more of it is not our land than is our land by law.
But let’s take a step back if we can for a moment. Back some 530 years ago, when Europeans started coming toward “this land.” Back then, it was inhabited by thousands upon thousands of indigenous people with lives and families. Homes, and work. A mass civilization here, happy enough to go about their business on their land.
Until white people invaded. Here in the United States, we still hail Christopher Columbus for the deed of discovery. Oh yes, we do, whether we like it or not. Columbus Day is an annual federal holiday that occurs on the second Monday in October each year. It is set up to commemorate his arrival and his discovery of America on October 12, 1492.
But goofy, Chris. He was down in the Caribbean. And, uh. Our legislators are a bunch of dopes, I’ll tell you.
Anyway, he wasn’t even the first white guy here.
I mean, who knows how many actually came and went before that time?
But one we are sure of is Leif Erikson.
It is okay to spell it a bunch of different ways. Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson, or Leif Ericson.
And maybe you will spell it today because October 9 is Leif Erikson Day in the United States. President Calvin Coolidge declared it so back in 1925.
He was also known as Leif the Lucky, and he lived from around 970 to 1019, plus or minus a few years. Leif was a Norse explorer, and all evidence suggests that he was the first European to set foot on continental North America.
As you can tell by his birthdate, he did this approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus.
Anyone in Iceland these days can tell you. He established a Norse settlement at Vinland, which is located in coastal North America. Most scientists speculate that the settlement found in Newfoundland, Canada, called L’Anse aux Meadows, was made by Leif and his crew. That place was occupied by Norse people around 1,000 years ago.
Leif was the son of Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse settlement in Greenland, and Thjodhild (Þjóðhildur) of Iceland.
Apparently, Leif sailed off course when making a trip from Norway to Greenland, and that is when he bumped into Canada. There’s a lot of history about him, but low and behold, he actually hit this continent whereas, Christopher Columbus did not.
Regardless. Neither one of them discovered anything. “This land” was alive and well and thriving with an incredible culture before the white people came along and screwed things up.
Don’t get me wrong. It isn’t that I don’t like white people. I am one.
But darn it if we don’t go around thinking we have the right to take things that are not ours. Even our presidents. Like when they try to take away certified election results. Or when they take top secret government documents for their own personal gains.
It’s like some people have “the evil villain gene” built right into their systems.
Anyway, perhaps Woody Guthrie was speaking symbolically when he wrote the song. Either way, we should appreciate this land we are on. To be free in this world is still a great privilege.
This has come at a great cost throughout history. We should be grateful for our freedoms. Because, as we know, they are not guaranteed.
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Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
— Viktor E. Frankl
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May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right.
— Peter Marshall
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Responsibility is the price of freedom.
— Elbert Hubbard
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Leif came, and went.
