The family of Woody Guthrie has asked Josh Hawley to stop using Guthrie’s lyrics in his speeches.
The Kansas City Star reported that, after Hawley referenced Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” during a speech about his “This Land Is Our Land” bill, the family had some words for the Missouri Senator.
“We do not consider Josh Hawley in any way a representative of Woody’s values therefore we would never endorse or approve of his reference to Woody’s lyrics,” Guthrie’s daughter Nora said in a statement to the KC Star.
The bill Hawley was referencing is one that would ban Chinese corporations and people associated with the Chinese Communist Party from owning farmland in the U.S.
Nora Guthrie said other politicians have used the lyrics to “This Land Is Your Land” in speeches, but that she and her family objected to Hawley’s use specifically.
“In this particular case, the co-opting or parodying of the lyric by those not aligned with Woody’s lyrics - i.e. misrepresentation by autocrats, racists, white nationalists, anti-labor, insurrectionists, etc. - is not condoned,” she wrote in an email to the newspaper.
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