Intentional Cruelty with a Side of Ignorance

Another Fourth of July in a country that continues to take every chance to insult the ghosts that haunt it. President Trump decided to give his remarks on stolen land in the Black Hills. The federal government installed an enormous sound system at the site and regularly blares patriotic music to drown out the sounds of the hills. This year, someone in event planning chose to play the tune "Garryowen," an obscure Irish drinking song that has not recently cracked the top 40.

This song has been played before in the Black Hills. It was the battle song for Custer's 7th Cavalry. A favorite of Custer's, it was played many times, notably to signal the attack before he massacred women and children. There's plenty of information on the usage of the song here that I don't want to repeat, but one thing I will note is that the descendants of the 7th cavalry and the Cheyenne agreed to retire the song and never play it again.

This Trump administration is spiteful in its racism and informed by history. Pulling an obscure and retired song from the annals of history to play at a celebration of America is a malicious act. This is an America that hasn't given up on its dream of slaughtering Native American women and children (one that is mostly content to simply let them be slaughtered these days) and will unearth ancient symbols to reveal its intent to the initiated.

Spiteful and racist? Yes. Also stupid. I won't listen to this haunted song, but it's easy enough to pull up the song's history on Wikipedia and elsewhere. Who would have guessed the chorus:

Instead of spa, we'll drink brown ale
And pay the reckoning on the nail;
No man for debt shall go to jail
From Garryowen in glory.

We'll beat the bailiffs out of fun,
We'll make the mayor and sheriffs run
We are the boys no man dares dun*
If he regards a whole skin.
*v. to make repeated and insistent demands upon, especially for the payment of a debt.

Friends, you heard it here first. The Trump administration condones not paying debts, making mayors and sherriffs run, and never going to jail. Act accordingly.