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Points of View
Why Irving Berlin's Song Prevails'This Land' was Marxist answer to 'God Bless America.'This is the tale of two songs connected by historical events and political irony.The first was composed by an immigrant from Siberia at a military base on Long Island during the summer of 1918. Irving Berlin wrote a patriotic paean, then set it aside believing it to be too solemn for a revue, "Yip, Yip, Yaphank."Twenty years later, as the free world did little to allay fascist aggression in China, Ethiopia, Austria, Albania and Czechoslovakia, Berlin returned to the composition, tinkering with words and offering hope "while the storm clouds gather far across the sea."The new version of "God Bless America" was introduced by Kate Smith on her radio program, Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1938. It became an instant success, joining the body of patriotic songs -- "America the Beautiful," "My Country 'Tis of Thee," "Battle Hymn of the Republic" -- that inspired three generations of Americans through the painful experience of five wars. There are no ethereal references to "purple mountains majesty," no three-cheered evocations for the Red, White and Blue in Berlin's composition. Just a simple acknowledgment of God's blessing upon "a land that's free a land so fair."That kind of rhetoric on behalf of a nation still suffering from the ravages of economic depression, institutional racism and the plunder of natural resources was too much for some critics to swallow.In 1951, Woody Guthrie offered his own view of America in "This Land is Your Land." His song, became a folk-music anthem.Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan and the Limeliters all recorded versions in the 1960s. It contains no reference, mentions no special obligation, to God. Its feel-good spirit is celebrated in four verses by overaged flower children and their offspring. Yet, the last three verses to "This Land" are rarely performed today. These verses speak of the evil of property, police brutality toward labor leaders, minorities and communists.As Time columnist Joe Klein put it, "Few people could have realized that they were singing a song originally intended as a Marxist response to 'God Bless America.' "A professor at Carnegie Mellon University, David Shumway, has written, "It has always been difficult for the American left to make effective use of patriotic imagery and sentiments."Maybe it's because those who disparage the concept of property revere it so much. It is all but impossible impossible to cite a line of Woody Guthrie's compositions without paying a royalty.In contrast, Irving Berlin established the God Bless America Fund, dedicating all royalties to the Boy Scouts of America and Girl Scouts of America. That spirit of genuineness may account for another small, but significant, change in American observances since Sept. 11, 2001. At ballgames across the country, during the seventh inning stretch or some other appropriate moment, people stand in an act of humility and a spirit of unity as "God Bless America" is performed."