Elana Freeland
&
David Rovics
From ANDRAS JONES: Author and educator ELANA FREELAND joined our session with DAVID ROVICS in the graveyard adjacent basement and there was so much I wanted to discuss with her that we decided to make this a two-parter. In the first installment (the second will be in next week’s episode with Kendl Winter) I asked Elana to discuss her book series Sub Rosa America but first she launched into an Olympian reminiscence of attending a party with Jim Page in the 70’s. Her question is about living life “mission to mission”.
The nifty sync with today’s randomly chosen song from the Radio8Ball app is that today the town of Olympia where we recorded this is covered in cold cold water. Water so cold it’s snow.
POP ORACLE Song of The Day (February 4, 2019): MIRAH “Cold Cold Water”
My Great Grandparents
My great grandparents were refugees
That should be a normal thing to say
I was born in New York City
My people came from far away
They fled the generals and dictators
The warlords of Moscow and Budapest
You could be conscripted for the rest of your life Or you could
head west
My great great grandparents were refugees, too
Just north and west of Brittany
Farmers in the hills somewhere On the starving side of the
Irish Sea
They fled their colonial torturers They fled starvation, slavery
They fled across the Atlantic Along with millions of other
refugees
My great grandparents were refugees But getting to the other
side
Took such a toll it seems That my great grandfather died
So when his son was a little kid He grew up without a dad
And that’s typical of the hard life So many other refugees had
My great grandparents were refugees Let me tell you what that
means
They were escaping war-torn lands Ruled by tyrants, kings and
queens
They did not come seeking fortune They were not pioneers
Leaving home, their hearts were broken
And all their cries fell on deaf ears
My great grandparents were refugees No one taught me that in
school
It’s dangerous information In the old game of divide and rule
My name is David Rovics And I know who my people are
They’re on that raft upon the ocean They’re in the trunk of that
car
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