Stop Sulfide Mining Song -- "Generations 2 Come"

From Diadra Decker of Water Legacy*

Larry Long has written a heart-felt song about protecting Minnesota's Boundary Waters from sulfide mining!

Larry will perform it at the Sled Dogs to St. Paul (Minnesota) rally beginning at 10:30 a.m. outside the Capitol building Thursday, March 8. Dogs and mushers will arrive by 11:30 a.m. to deliver thousands of petition signatures to the governor -- collected along the way from the farthest northeast reaches of Minnesota on an 8-day trek -- snow or no snow!

Larry encourages us to make the song our own. Sing it, spread it, add verses ... (guitar: capo 3rd fret, Em and B).

Click here to listen to the song and see the lyrics below to sing along:

Generations 2 Come

Keep on riding. Keep on riding.
Them dog sleds into town.
Stop that mining. Stop that mining.
By the Boundary Waters right now!
To be protected! To be respected! Generations 2 come!

Keep on talking. Keep on walking.
Nobody can stop us now.
Legislation. Devastation.
Some things should be kept in the ground
To be protected! To be respected! Generations 2 come!

Sulfide mining. Sulfide mining.
Sulfuric acid running over the ground.
Acid rock drainage.
Don’t let them poison what we need to pass down.
To be protected! To be respected! Generations 2 come!

To take the profit. To leave the jobless
With mountains of toxic waste.
Squander the treasure of clean water
All across the Great Lakes?
To be protected! To be respected! Generations 2 come!

Pollution. Solution.
Cleanup that taconite mess.
Before mining sulfide,
Before there’s nothing left.
To be protected! To be respected! Generations 2 come!

Clean water. Clean air and water
For Mahnomen to grow.*
For the living to keep on giving
To this beautiful earth we call home.
To be protected! To be respected! Generations 2 come!

Words and Music: © 2012 Larry Long. Reprinted with permission.
Larry Long Publishing 2012 / BMI
"Generations 2 Come" was written with help from Jan Attridge, Diadra Decker, Marco Good, Betsy Bowen.
Larry Long is a Smithsonian Folkways Recording Artist and Executive Director of Community Celebration of Place. For more information: www.larrylong.org and www.communitycelebration.org; email: larryl@larrylong.org

*Mahnomen or Manoomin is Ojibwa for wild rice. Visit waterlegacy.org for information on the threats of sulfide mining to water and the Native wild rice in Minnesota.

Click here to sign a petition opposed to sulfide mining in Minnesota.