The timber wars continue.
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I was on my way to a forest defenders' gathering in western Pennsylvania when I heard about the murder of Earth First! activist, David Chain, known to his friends and comrades as Gypsy. Now the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department is charging Gypsy's friends and fellow activists with his death. The timber wars continue.
Tom Brokaw got on TV
And repeated the Big Lie
See the mill all boarded up
Hear the sympathetic sigh
He summed it up succinctly
With these vicious words
"It's your paycheck or your planet
The loggers or the birds"
Pete Wilson and his cronies
Were nowhere to be found
They said "Big Timber is our business
And to the dollar we are bound"
Their absence was a message
"We'll turn a blinded eye
Don't expect us to give a damn
If anyone should die"
Charles Hurwitz told the nation
"The battle lines are drawn
These eco-terrorists won't stop
'Til all your jobs are gone"
The PR team worked overtime
To build up every wall
"These bomb-throwers and tree-spikers
Just want to kill you all"
A man stood with a chainsaw
Knowing only what he knew
Every lesson that he learned
Said it's either me or you
His saw lanced through the redwood
Many hateful words were said
And several seconds later
David Chain was lying dead
Some will call this man a killer
Some will call this man a thug
Some will cover it with lies
And sweep it 'neath the rug
But from Oakland to Fortuna
Sacramento to D.C.
There is murder in the air
And there are killers running free
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Created December, 1998
Copyright David Rovics 1998, all rights reserved