I was invited, along with Jackie Tice, to sing a song at a Free Speech rally in the Town Square park near the Steel Stacks. When we arrived, there was a crowd of about 100 folks, mostly union workers. Several professors, labor leaders spoke to the crowd, and the press was there as well.
It seems the land for this community park was deeded to the city by The Sands Casino, but with stipulations that no event could take place that would be ‘offensive to a reasonable casino operator or permit people to organize for unions”. This in the very shadow of the Bethlehem Steel buildings. That explained the large number of union workers there.
Jackie and I worked up ‘This Land is Your Land’ which has some interesting lyrics at the end, and we each wrote a verse. Mine: Standing in the shadows of Bethlehem’s foundries, our words and songs know no boundaries. Freedom of speech is a right in our community, this land was made for you and me. We sang our parts, and went into the crowd and got them to sing and hear their own voices. It was quite effective and well received as the punctuation for the protest.
It felt good and righteous, and it was good to see fellow artists like Bill George and Doug Roysdon there with us.