IS THIS LAND YOUR LAND????
When I lived in Chicago, Illinois on the westside I loved my neighborhood because I had great friends and plenty things to do as a young teenager. But I could tell that our community was changing by the day. . After graduating from eighth grade I was looking forward to attending high school.
But my parents without notice, I found myself moving sixty miles south of Chicago to a small community called Pembroke, Illinois. It was the country township and I had a total culture shock. The community was mostly Black with big farmers with acres of land of corn, soybeans and other crops, While riding down the highway I cried like a baby. The three guys that help my Dad to move us looked at me like I was a baby they were only several years older than me. It took my family two years before we found a decent house, Where we had enough land to have a small farm. We had hogs, goats, chickens, ducks, and a garden. It was enough land to grow soybeans and my Dad rented a few more acres to harvests. He bought a combine, two tractors, and a big bedded truck. At first needless to say I hated it and after a while I loved it. My younger brother and I had to get up every morning at five in the morning to feed the animals. After about a year and half my father could not rent or purchase more farmland in the community so he shut it down.
Woody Guthrie an American Folk singer wrote a song call This Land is your Land This land is my land. Growing up through the years you come to understand the loss opportunity my old man had because he couldn’t get more land to farm to make a living. The first verse goes like this. This land is your land, this land is my land from California to the New York Island from the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters This land was made for you and me. He was a social protester.
So you might be saying Ted what the heck are you talking about, well a few days ago I was reading Forbes Magazine and I came across how many billionaires own so much land. I decided to do a little research and started looking up the top ten land owners. Wow it’s crazy, here they are John Malone 2.2 million acres, Ted Turner 2 million acres, The Emmerson Family 1.9, Brad Kelly 1.7, The Reed Family 1.3, The Irving Family 1.2, The Singleton Family 1.1, The King Family 900 thousand acres, Stan Kroenke 865 thousand acres, The Pingree Family 830 thousand acres. Here is the translation resources. These major landowners control enormous commodities of industry lumber, oil, gas, corn, wheat, rice, soybeans, cattle, and other major crops. Which in the stock market world are called commodities. The top twenty five landowners on the list owns a minimum of 300 thousand acres or more. That’s a lot of land
Now watch this, farm and land subsidy for big business receive huge subsidies from our government; they have been doling out billilons to major, middle, and small farmers and big landowners for years. Only the government and God knows how many trillions that have been pass out. And In the words of Dick Gregory “It’s a game” Follow the money people.
Mr. Ted Harvey, The Money Connection.Com
“Follow The Money People”