Chant for the Okefenokee –Jane Ross Fallon 2024-01-04

As Jane Fallon sings,

There is no right way
To do the wrong thing.

[Movie: Chant for the Okefenokee --Jane Ross Fallon (8.5M)]
Movie: Chant for the Okefenokee –Jane Ross Fallon

You can help stop a strip mine too near the Okefenokee Swamp for titanium dioxide for white paint:
https://wwals.net/issues/titanium-mining

Georgians, ask your statehouse delegation to pass HB 71 to stop further such mines on Trail Ridge east of the Swamp.
https://protectgeorgia.org/okefenokee/#/366/

Floridians, ask your friends and relatives in Georgia to do this, and ask the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to ask the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to deny the permits for this single point source of pollution upstream of Florida.

Jane Ross Fallon wrote, “I recently won the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest. The contest video of my performance did not turn out, and it was suggested I film one myself. John S. Quarterman, Suwannee Riverkeeper, sent me a banner to use. So I made a video with my cell in my house. I didn’t think the sonic quality of the phone was adequate, so I recorded the song on my computer, overdubbing the video. Never done that before. Then I decided, it’s not about me, it’s about the song and its purpose. So I made a more elaborate presentation. Let me know if it works.😏”

Lyrics

Here is Jane’s video of her Chant for the Okefenokee.
https://youtu.be/UQx9eEWbEcI

[Chant for the Okefenokee by Jane Ross Fallon]
Chant for the Okefenokee by Jane Ross Fallon

In the land of trembling earth, in the low and shaking waters
You’ll see spirits rise as the moon does down.
Beneath the brilliance of the stars the beautiful Sun Daughters
Gather round.

[Indians paddling]
Indians paddling

Legend tells us that they disappeared in mystery
Escaping capture by lusty Seminole men.
But from the foggy annals of the great swamp’s history
They rise again.

[Fog]
Fog

Saying we have come together on the evening for a reason –
There is danger in the air for our blissful land.
The water it will drain, and the fires start increasing
By a stranger’s hand.

[Mine]
Mine

Where the beautiful St Mary’s winds to the Eastern Sea
And the wild Suwannee rises towards the Gulf of Mexico
We must find the ones whose greed won’t let us be
And make them go.

[Stream]
Stream

So let us chant in a voice that’s strong and true:
Twin Pines, we don’t want your mines.
You poison wings and springs,
And no matter what you say,
There is no right way
To do the wrong thing.

[Knees]
Knees

They target the Trail Ridge for the treasure that they seek
Right near Okefenokee they’ll dig in the sand
And will compromise the waters and the animals and birds
Upon our land.

[Heron]
Heron

But mistress what is it that these men are searching for?
one daughter softly whispered into the ghostly night.
It seems my child that there’s a mineral they can’t ignore
That makes things white.

[Minnies Lake]
Minnies Lake

They want it for toothpaste, plastic, paint, and paper
Things that their modern society demands
They reap a thing called money while desecrating nature
By digging in our sand.

[Prairie]
Prairie

They claim that they’ll do nothing to harm the air and waters
But they lie through the skies like a malignant wind,
And all that we hold dear in our habitat dear daughters
Just might end.

[Open water]
Open water

So let us chant in a voice that’s strong and true:
Twin Pines, we don’t want your mines.
You poison wings and springs,
And no matter what you say,
There is no right way
To do the wrong thing.

Hey Twin Pines, we don’t want your mines.

[Winners]
Winners

Join us again for WWALS River Revue, Saturday, September 7, 2024, at the Turner Center for the Arts in Valdosta, Georgia.
https://wwals.net/pictures/songwriting2024

Submissions will open in April for songs about any river, creek, spring, sink, pond, or swamp in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida or Georgia.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/