Points to Ponder:
(On the Dangers of Professional Wrestling)

"You can break a bone in there, brudda, and I mean any part of the bone!" [Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka]

Points to Ponder:

Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, 'Thank God I'm still alive.' But of course those who died, their lives will never be the same again. [Senator Barbara Boxer]

Points to Ponder:

If I had to choose between being waterboarded and listening to the philosophers redefining terms, it would be a hard call. [Francesca Murphy]

[Note: In the interest of dividing into multiple parts (for easier reading) a previous posting, it seemed appropriate to move this posting to the present spot to avoid breaking the continuity of the aforementioned posting. -ISM]

The other night I saw a private screening of a movie called Flags of Our Fathers which will be in movie theatres on October 20th. Directed by Clint Eastwood and produced by Eastwood in conjunction with Steven Spielberg, this was a movie that I recommend all my readers to go out and see. It is a historical account of the battle of Iwo Jima and the lives of the men involved -particularly the seven who were photographed raising the flag. The tale is one of courage and sacrifice by brave heroes who would never have considered themselves as such. It is also a portrayal of some of the less-than-edifying accompanyments{1} that are involved in even the most noble of struggles. But as it has not been released in the theatres yet, all I will say is this: see the movie when it comes out.

One of the characters portrayed in the movie was Ira Hayes, a marine who was also a Pima Indian. In watching the portrayal on the movie screen, I remembered some of the Johnny Cash song lyrics that have been posted on this weblog in the past{2} and thought it would be good to post for the second time{3} a song by someone else which Johnny essentially made his own about one of the men from Iwo Jima. Without further ado, here goes...

The Ballad of Ira Hayes:
(Written by Peter LaFarge; Sung by Johnny Cash)

Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Gather round me people there's a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian you should remember well
From the land of the Pima Indian
A proud and noble band
Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land

Down the ditches for a thousand years
The water grew Ira's peoples' crops
'Till the white man stole the water rights
And the sparklin' water stopped

Now Ira's folks were hungry
And their land grew crops of weeds
When war came, Ira volunteered
And forgot the white man's greed

[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

There they battled up Iwo Jima's hill,
Two hundred and fifty men
But only twenty-seven lived to walk back down again

And when the fight was over
And when Old Glory raised
Among the men who held it high
Was the Indian, Ira Hayes

[CHORUS:]

Ira returned a hero
Celebrated through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored; Everybody shook his hand

But he was just a Pima Indian
No water, no crops, no chance
At home nobody cared what Ira'd done
And when did the Indians dance

[CHORUS:]

Then Ira started drinkin' hard;
Jail was often his home
They'd let him raise the flag and lower it
like you'd throw a dog a bone!

He died drunk one mornin'
Alone in the land he fought to save
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
Was a grave for Ira Hayes

[CHORUS:]

Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes
But his land is just as dry
And his ghost is lyin' thirsty
In the ditch where Ira died

May the soul of the patriot Ira Hayes and all who have fought to preserve the freedom in this great-but-imperfect nation rest in peace.

Notes:

{1} Imagine that, America as great a nation as she is nonetheless has its flaws. This writer nonetheless refuses to play the game of contrasting the flaws of America in reality against some idealized notion which does not and cannot exist ala what not a few marxists-posing-as-"peacemakers" are prone to do. (In a nutshell, they are blatantly inconsistent in their approach for reasons noted at the latter link and more in depth in the original posting it was extracted from.)

{2} Here are the other ones from the weblog archives for those who are interested:

I Walk The Line (posted on October 1, 2003)

Don't Take Your Guns to Town (posted on October 2, 2003)

Big River (posted on October 3, 2003)

Give My Love to Rose (posted on October 5, 2003)

Man in Black (posted on October 7, 2003)

Long Black Veil--Written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin (posted on October 15, 2003)

{3} Neither The Ballad of Ira Hayes nor The Long Black Veil --unlike the other songs of Johnny's which we posted-- were written by Johnny Cash.