Lyr Add: Parody: The Dioxin Song

Subject: Parody: The Dioxin Song
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 20 Jun 04 - 05:55 PM

I co- authored this song together with Murray Gewirtz in the spring of 1983, just before the Jewish holiday of Passover. This was during the Reagan administration, when the dioxin scare hit full blast. We found out how Dow Chemical was polluting the waters of Saginaw Bay, Times Beach, MO. was evacuated, the Ironbound section of Newark, N.J., Edison, & Clifton, N.J. were all contaminated by indusries that were using dioxin. On a personal note, I was living in the Great Kills section of Staten Island, NY at the time and we found out that dioxin was illegally dumped in the Brookfield Landfill, just 2 blocks from my house. Four of my friends who lived one block closer to the dump than I did passed away from rare forms of cancer within the next 5 years. In 1987 I moved upstate to Rockland County. James Watt was the Secretary of Energy and Tom Kean was the Governor of N.J. at the time. They are both mentioned in the song. The tune is that of the Jewish song Dayenu, a traditional song sang at the Passover seder.

          THE DIOXIN SONG   (by Murray Gewirtz & Sol Zeller) c. l983

I went to buy some fish for dinner
Now my hair is getting thinner
My nails fall out, I've got the gout
From Dioxin

(CHORUS)      Di-dioxin, Di-dioxin, Di-dioxin
             There is no stronger man-made toxin
             Di-dioxin, Di-dioxin, Di-dioxin
             It comes to you from Dow

When you sit down to your Seder
Eat your carp and worry later
That some day, you'll pass away
From Dioxin
                      CHORUS

Reagan says our corporations
Have too many regulations
Dow, somehow, we must allow
Its Dioxin

                      CHORUS

Watt burns bright with inspiration
He'll sell out our whole great nation
Who needs health, we'll live on wealth
From Dioxin

                      CHORUS

Where is justice, truth, & reason
It must be the "crazy season"
It may not last, we may die fast
From Dioxin

                      CHORUS

We've fouled our nest with fatal toxins
Agent Orange and Dioxins
Our sea is soiled, our fish despoiled
By Dioxin

                      CHORUS

The Tittabawassee's pollluted waters
Bring birth defects and disorders
As they flow each day into Saginaw Bay
With Dioxin

                        CHORUS

Times Beach had its population
Undergo evacuation
Because the ground, it did abound
With Dioxin

                        CHORUS

Now in Newark's Ironbound
Contamination has been found
But Tom Kean says we're safe and sound
From Dioxin

                         CHORUS

Now in Edison and Clifton
The EPA is busy siftin'
Through the earth, where there's no dearth
of Dioxin

                         CHORUS

Chemistry's for better living
So we'd better be forgiving
Of the guys, who fed us lies
And Dioxin

                         CHORUS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Although this song is somewhat dated, I think many of you here will agree with me that given the current administration's record on the environment,it still holds true today, more than ever before.

                                             SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: Parody: The Dioxin Song
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 20 Jun 04 - 06:02 PM

(laughs) I gotta send that to my father, who works for the EPA. Currently Patent Counsel, but he's been with them for about 15 years in various roles including water quality and risk assessment.

-- Gary

Subject: RE: Parody: The Dioxin Song
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 20 Jun 04 - 06:08 PM

The year that we wrote the song, we gave copies to both, Pete Seeger & Oscar Brand who both loved it and said that they would perform it. To this day, I don't know whether they ever did. SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: Parody: The Dioxin Song
From: Peace
Date: 20 Jun 04 - 06:33 PM

Sol,

The people at Grassy Narrows in Ontario will understand. So will the people in Minimata, Japan. Good song.

Bruce M

Subject: RE: Parody: The Dioxin Song
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 20 Jun 04 - 06:41 PM

Where is Grassy Narrows ? Is it anywhere near the Love Canal or is it on the other side of Lake Huron opposite Saginaw, Michigan ?
SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: Parody: The Dioxin Song
From: Peace
Date: 20 Jun 04 - 07:11 PM

Grassy Narrows is located north of Kenora, Ontario. I first learned of the mercury poisoning that happen there in Troyer's book, "No Safe Place." Here is a brief write up from the www. This is not from Troyer's book. It is from a site on the web and it is a native elder speaking.

In 1972 we were shocked to find out that our fresh water was contaminated with mercury that was dumped from a paper mill 320 kms upstream. We have lived with the negative effects since then: Mercury poisoning which has produced various health problems, loss of traditional food and harvesting, and the loss of commercial fishing, and the loss of self esteem within the family circle. Grassy Narrows received compensation in the 1980's from the Reed Paper Company and the Federal government.

As a footnote, Sol, there are about twenty people there who are totally crippled up and suffering from the poisoning. The Government of Ontario is always happy when it doesn't here the name. What's new?

Subject: RE: Parody: The Dioxin Song
From: Peace
Date: 20 Jun 04 - 08:31 PM

. . . and maybe I'll spell the word thus: hear