I am often moved to post the lyrics of a song called Bread and Roses on Labor Day. Today a song shared by the Rev’d Janelle Bruce of the Church Without Walls reached out and grabbed me. Its tone feels more in line with the hardships of where we are right now.
We Have Fed You All for a Thousand Years
We have fed you all for a thousand years,
And you hail us still unfed,
Though there's never a dollar of all your wealth.
But marks the workers' dead.
We have yielded our best to give you rest
And you lie on crimson wool.
And if blood be the price of all your wealth,
Good God! We have paid in full!
This song was originally posted on protestsonglyrics.net
There is never a mine blown skyward now.
But we're buried alive for you.
There's never a wreck drifts shoreward now,
But we are its ghastly crew.
Go reckon our dead by the forges red
And the factories where we spin.
If blood be the price of your cursed wealth,
Good God! We have paid it in!
We have fed you all for a thousand years -
For that was our doom, you know;
From the days when you chained us in your fields
To the strike a week ago.
You have taken our lives, our husbands and wives,
And we're told it's your legal share.
But if blood be the price of your lawful wealth,
Good God! We have bought it fair!
Members of our community in Howard County struggle to get by, hampered by a minimum wage kept artificially low to benefit the well-to-do. They spend too much of their income on housing because affordable housing makes folks in Howard County uncomfortable. First to be laid off in a pandemic, first to be forced to return to work when it was not yet safe, first to be sickened and die.
Their labor makes it possible for the rest of us to continue our lives in some normalcy. Yet they are the ones who must line up to receive food from groups like Columbia Community Care. Their children need school supplies, desks, sometimes even beds to sleep in.
You have taken our lives, our husbands and wives,
And we're told it's your legal share.
Today is Labor Day. Many of those this day is meant to honor are being crushed in Howard County and across the nation. It may be legal, but it is far from moral.
Labor Day was created by the labor movement to pay tribute to the American workers. May we continue to stand for worker’s rights & always remember we are MORE than our labor. We are human BEings 1st! - - the Rev’d Janelle Bruce, CWOW
I hope you will give some thought today to the workers in our community who work in so many ways we are unaware of and whose cries for justice are often overlooked.
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