What Would Woody Think?

Just A Letter From Someone Who Lives In Woody Guthrie's Birthplace

First off, look up who Woody Guthrie was and what he stood for. Then look up where he was born.

Okemah, Oklahoma

A small town in east-central Oklahoma. A pretty conservative, typical small town with a population of around 3000 people. I’ve lived here off and on since I was eight years old. Steadily for the last fourteen years.

Every year, Okemah holds The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, locals call it Woodyfest or hippyfest just because of the sheer amount of tie-dye that appears. The town grows to around 6 to 8 thousand people during that time (my numbers could be off) because people come from all over the country to celebrate our hometown hero.

There are signs and murals all over town, a small park with a Woody statue and the main road into town is called Woody Guthrie Street. Woody is a big deal here. During the festival, store fronts get decorated with different things that represent Woody Guthrie.

There is a children’s festival where kids learn to play This Land Is Your Land on the harmonica or sometimes a different small instrument. There are concerts in a field just outside town, called Pastures Of Plenty after one of his songs, where some of Woody’s family comes to perform, where some other famous singers have played.

The locals boldly where t-shirts with pictures emblazoned with Woody’s face or song lyrics or even just his guitar. You know, the one with a “THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS” on the front of it. Nothing wrong with any of that.

Except that I know that a lot of these people also drove around trucks covered in Trump flags and cheering when he won again. They are the average Trump supporter that you see in every red state. They love to gloat and throw blame anywhere but where it actually belongs.

Trump is the second coming for them when he fits the description of the anti-christ. But they still celebrate a man that hated the Trumps. They don’t care to learn what fascism is and somehow believe that Woody Guthrie would be ok with it.

Now, I don’t know if anyone will even see this, but if you do, please share it. Come to Okemah the second week of July and let people know what Woody REALLY stood for. I live here and I might get backlash from the people here but I felt like this needed to be put out in the open and stop floating around in my head. I think about it all the time and wonder:

What would Woody Think?