Category Archives: Local Issues

Cranes, Humongous Cranes

By Linda Jansen
To the tune of “Food, Glorious Food”

Cranes, humongous cranes
All over the city.
They’re not building for us
That’s really a pity.
Hey, City Council please play fair (pause)
You work for us all (spoken: right?).
Build public housing for all. It’s up to you.
Answer our call!

They knock down our homes
And put up new towers
Can’t afford that place
Even working 40 hours
Hey, City Council please play fair (pause)
You work for us all (spoken: right?).
Build public housing for all.  It’s up to you.
Answer our call!

Y2K

  • tune: Danny Boy
    by Hinda Kipnis

Oh, Y2K, the chips, the chips are falling
In nuclear plants, both here and ‘cross the sea.
Four hundred plus reactors are waiting.
It’s not yet known where me-eltdowns will be.

To save the bank, we’ve all been told: Don’t panic!
But mum’s the word for nuclear tragedy.
The time is now: deactivate reactors.
Prevent Y2K catastrophe!

Radioactive Thyroids

  • tune: My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean
    by Kay Thode

You’ve polluted the air and the water
Irradiated sheep and cows,
Seeped toxics toward the Columbia,
Oh what, oh what, will you do now!

  • Chorus:
    Clean up, clean up,
    Clean up the messes you’ve made,
    Hanford bosses,
    Clean up the messes you’ve made.

You didn’t cause harm to our thyroids
The government says you did not,
But of course it took years to discover
Your nuclear gas release plot.

  • Chorus

Use all of your budget for cleanup,
And to compensate folks you have harmed
It’s time you made up for the damage
You’ve caused with your nuclear farm.

  • Chorus

Public Involvement (10/29/01)

  • tune: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
    by Kay Thode

We’ve written, we’ve sung and we’ve spoken,
All of it to no avail,
No matter how reasoned our stance is,
You just keep ignoring our tale.

  • Chorus:
    Listen, listen,
    Heed what we’re saying to you,
    Hear us, hear us—
    You know that our message is true.

We want to be told of decisions
To reduce cleanup efforts before
It’s too late to take any action
To impact the process once more.

We want what we say to be heeded,
Not filed in another report,
And alternative viewpoints considered,
Not just as a last resort.

  • Chorus

We’re tired of coming to hearings
And giving our views every year,
What’s the use of this public involvement
If all we get is a deaf ear.

  • Chorus

Hanford Victory (1/31/99)

  • tune: After the Ball Is Over
    by Kay Thode

Now that fast flux is ended
Now we have won at last
We celebrate our victory
Cause that dire threat has passed.
We thank all the people in this room
For all the work they’ve done
Now we must all work to see that
Cleanup is job number one.

We still have a federal budget
That shortchanges people’s health
And they are still squandering money
On missiles that take so much wealth.
We’ll keep opposing this outrage
We will keep on with the fight
To create a world that is peaceful
Where nuclear war won’t ignite

Hanford Hearing (10/18/99)

  • tune: Blowing in the Wind
    by Kay Thode

How many times must we come before you
To tell you to shut that thing down?
How many times must we testify
Before you will hear our call?
How many times must we stand up here
Before you will listen to our plea?
The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind,
The answer is blowing in the wind.

(August 2000)

How many dollars have gone down the drain
To keep FFTF on line?
How much cleanup could you have done
With all that money and time?
How many years will you keep searching for
A reason for it to survive?
The answer, my friend, is all politics,
The answer is all politics.

Hanford Cleanup (3/6/99)

  • tune: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
    Kay Thode

Get rid of that Fast Flux reactor,
Shut it down for once and for all,
We really don’t want and don’t need it
So get it shut down by this fall.

Chorus:
Fast Flux, Fast Flux,
Get rid of Fast Flux for me,
Fast Flux, Fast Flux,
Get rid of Fast Flux for me.

The budget to clean the environment
Will be cut thirty-five percent
Don’t waste thirty million on Fast Flux,
For cleanup it’s much better spent.

Chorus

Hanford Cleanup (1/22/02)

  • tune: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
    Kay Thode

Empty those high level waste tanks,
Vitrify seventy-five percent,
Don’t leave leaking active waste here
Despoiling our environment

Uphold the Tri-Party agreement,
Protect the Columbia’s fish,
We don’t want radioactive salmon
To be served up to us on our dish.

Line all the low-level waste ground,
Ensure they are safe for all time,
Clean up the soil and ground water,
Meet all of the legal deadlines.

Clean up, cleanup,
Cleanup is job number one,
Cleanup, cleanup,
That is what must be done.

Hanford Bubble

  • tune: If You’re Happy and You Know It
    Kay Thode

There’s a crust upon the bubble in the tank.
There’s a crust upon the bubble in the tank.
But if the bubble it should burst
You will see the worst
Disastrous mess that you have ever seen.

If you don’t know what to do with the tank,
If you don’t know what to do with the tank,
Then why on earth would you create
Ad deadly new mistake
By putting FFTF back on line?

Concentrate your bucks on cleanup, do you hear!
Concentrate your bucks on cleanup , do you hear!
We don’t need a new disaster
Plaguing us forever after,
So shut down FFTF for all time.

Fast Flux Shutdown

  • tune: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
    Kay Thode

Uphold the November decision,
Do not restart FFTF
It’s long past the time that it ended
Before it makes a new mess.

  • Chorus:
    Shut down, shut down,
    Shut down Fast Flux by 2003,
    Shut down, shut down,
    No more delays don’t you see.

Put milestones in the cleanup agreement,
To shut Fast Flux once and for all,
We’re sick of you delaying deadlines,
Just shut it right down by the fall.

Retrieve leaking waste from the waste tanks,
Vitrify at least 20 percent,
Import no more low-level wastes here
Stop delaying much needed treatment..

  • Chorus:
    Cleanup, cleanup,
    Cleanup is job number one,
    Cleanup, cleanup,
    That is what must be done

Down Ol’ Hanford Way

  • tune: South of the Border
    Canadian Grannies’ Songbook

South of the border
Down ol’ Hanford way
There are some storage tanks
Of nuclear waste bubbling away.
The fallout could blow here
And ruin our day
From south of the border
Down ol’ Hanford way.

For forty-odd years
No warning were given.
“No need to worry, dears,
About radioactive iodine.
The tanks are not rusting,
The rivers are clear.”
South of the border
Down ol’ Hanford way.
But this is all B.S., we know.
Aye-yi-yi-yi, Ayi-yi-yi!

Cleanup Hanford

  • tune: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
    by Kay Thode

Get rid of that Fast Flux Reactor,
Shut it down for once and for all,
We really don’t want and don’t need it,
So get it shut down by the fall.

Forty-four million would buy us more cleanup
Not danger of future misuse
To produce isotopes or plutonium
For which there isn’t any good use.

We’re sick of you delaying deadlines
And wasting our dollars to keep
That blasted reactor on standby
It’s past time to put it to sleep.

You pay the contractors for failing
To do what they should have done
Then reduce the dollars needed for cleanup
This really is not what we call fun.

How long will you waste our tax dollars
To keep that damn thing on the line
We’ve told you for years don’t want it
Must we do it yet another time.

No Taxes for the Stadium

  • by Kay Thode

No taxes for the stadium, the stadium, the stadium,
No taxes for the stadium,
We simply will not pay.

Housing for the homeless, the homeless, the homeless,
Housing for the homeless,
Not welfare for the rich.

We have told them No, before, No, before, No, before,
We have told them No, before,
Don’t they understand.

One more time our message is, message is, message is,
One more time our message is,
NO MORE STADIUMS.

15 Now

  • Tune: Sixteen Tons
    By Jo-Hanna Read

You work hard for all your life.
And so do your children, your husband or wife.
You wait on tables, you sweep the floor.
No matter how hard ya work, you’re poorer than poor

You work for min’mum wage and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
The poverty level is more than you earn.
While the company bosses have money to burn!

We say 15Now is the way to go.
We need it right now, no need to go slow.
Deducting tips and benefits will not do!
If you think that’s fair, you don’t have a clue.

You work for min’mum wage and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
The poverty level is more than you earn.
While the company bosses have money to burn!

Big business is worried that we’ll get this through,
So they started OneSeattle with their big business crew.
Now they’re gettin’ small businesses to front their lines
With misinformation and downright lies.

You work for min’mum wage and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
The poverty level is more than you earn.
While the company bosses have money to burn!

Gaggle: Hanford, Fix Those Leaks

  • by Laurie Rostholder

Oh, we’re a gaggle of grannies
Urging you off of your fannies
We’re raising our voice
We want a new choice
Fix those leaks

The nuclear toxins are leaking
For decades of this we’ve been speaking
The waste stays around
And spreads through the ground
Fix those leaks

Some want nuclear reactors
To provide our energy
It’s clean, safe, and efficient
What astounding hypocrisy

So join this gaggle of grannies
Get up off of your fannies
We’re telling you now
We’re angry and how
Fix those leaks
We really mean it
Fix those leaks
We mean precisely
Fix those leaks
We will say it very nicely
Fix those leaks
Read our lips
(silently) Fix those leaks

CHARLIE ON THE METRO BUS

  • Tune: M.T.A./Charlie
    Lyrics: Mike Wold

Now let me tell you of a story ‘bout a man named Charlie,
Who was never know to make a fuss,
He put Orca in his pocket,kissed his wife and family,
Went to ride the Metro bus

  • CHORUS:
  • But did he ever return? No, he never returned
    And his fate is still unlearned (Poor Old Charlie!)
    He may wait forever at a downtown bus stop
    He’s the man who never returned.

Charlie tagged his card in the Rainier Valley
He was headed for Delridge Way
But when he tried to transfer he just waited and waited
Cause they’d taken the route away.

  • CHORUS

All might long Charlie waits at the bus stop
Saying, ‘What will become of us?’
How can I ever manage to get to my job
If I’m always gonna miss this bus?

  • CHORUS

Charlie calls his wife every evening a seven
She says, ‘Where are you, tell me where!’
Charlie says to her, ‘I’m still just waiting.
For a bus that can take me there.’

  • CHORUS

Good people of Seattle, don’t  you think it’s a scandal,
That they are cutting bus service this way?
Fight for better transit and for decent wages
And get to his job today!

  • LAST CHORUS:
    Or else he’ll never return, No he’ll never return
    And his fate will be unlearned(Poor Old Charlie)
    He will wait forever at a downtown bus stop
    He’s the man who never returned.

 

Clean Up the Waste

  • tune:Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think

For years and years,
We’ve come and sung,
Beseeched and testified,
FULL cleanup is what we all want,
And we’re not satisfied.

We won’t take any
More new waste,
‘Til what’s here is all clean,
We’re sick of being
Your waste dump,
It really is obscene.

Clean up the waste,
It’s later than you think,
Clean up the waste,
Before it’s in the drink,
The Columbia is really on the brink,
Clean up the waste, Clean up the waste,
It’s later than you think!

Clean Up Is Job Number One

  • tune:My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean

Empty those high level waste tanks,
Vitrify a higher percent,
Don’t leave leaking active waste tanks here
Despoiling our environment.

CHORUS:
Cleanup, cleanup, Cleanup is job number one,
Cleanup, cleanup, That is what must be done.

Uphold the Tri-Partite agreement,
Protect the Columbia’s fish,
We don’t want radioactive salmon,
To be served up to us on our dish.

CHORUS

Line all the low-level waste grounds,
Ensure they are safe for all time,
Clean up the soil and ground water,
Meet all of the legal deadlines.

CHORUS

At Last

At last, FFTF will be gone,
Its standby days are over,
We celebrate with song.

At last, we see the end in sight,
It’s much too far away yet,
But okay if it’s done right.

We have a dream of a clean Hanford
That folks can visit without fright,
A place where healthy critters wander,
With no Danger in sight.

At last, once more
We think it’s true,
FFTF will be shut down,
Our hopes and dreams come true.

Hanford Cleanup

  • by Kay Thode
  • tune: John Brown’s Body

The chosen site of Hanford is for radioactive waste.
It mixes in our water and we all can have a taste.
The river called Columbia is about to get some too.
Nuclear soup for me and you!

Leaking tanks forever!
Leaking tanks forever!
Leaking tanks forever!
Plutonium makes us strong!

We have so little money for clean up the mess,
We’re spending it on armaments that bring us happiness.
So what’s a little poison when you mix it in your tea—
It builds the economy!

Leaking tanks forever!
Leaking tanks forever!
Leaking tanks forever!
Plutonium makes us strong!
(Kay Thode)

There’s a Rental in This Town

  • tune: There’s a Tavern in the Town

There’s a rental in this town, in this town,
And there my fam’ly settled down, settled do-o-own.
We ate and slept and played there every day,
And paid our rent so we could stay.

  • Chorus:
    Fare thee well for we must leave thee.
    Do not let this parting grieve thee.
    Our rent jumped sky high believe me,
    And so we must part.

Adieu, adieu kind friends, adieu, yes, adieu.
We can no longer be with you, be with you, ou, ou, ou.
We’ll hang our clothes on a weeping willow tree,
And sleep in Nickelsville for free.

It’s Later Than You Think

  • tune: Enjoy Yourself

For years we’ve sung,
Beseeched and testified,
To clear the waste,
But we were just denied.
The people spoke
In their initiative.
We showed our fear,
The vote was clear—
Don’t wait another year.

Chorus:
Respect the vote
And clean up all the waste.
No more delays
It must be done with haste.
Columbia is really on the brink
Clean up the waste!
Clean up the waste!
It’s later than you think.

We don’t want
The nation’s nuclear load.
You haven’t cleared!
We’re ready to explode.
Don’t give us more
Until what’s here is clean.
Clean up the waste!
Clean up the waste!
It really is obscene.

Initiative 297

  • by Kay Thode
  • tune: Theme of Beverly Hillbillies

I was travelin’ down the highway
As happy as a clam,
‘Til I got caught in a
Horrendous traffic jam.
Then I noticed right beside me,
There on the road,
A truck with nuclear waste
As its load.

It was bound for eastern Washington,
With Hanford as its goal,
And I shuddered as I thought of
The radioactive toll
It could take on people parked there
Just like sitting ducks
Exposed to radiation
From that idling truck.

Little did I know thousands more
Would come down the road,
Sent by DOE
With their cancer causing load.
What kind of government leaders
Would expose us to such harm
As when they sent troops to Iraq
Based on a false alarm.

Well, we’re going to stop those bureaucrats
In Washington D.C.
From sending any more waste here
To damage you and me.
Get out and tell folks everywhere
The danger that we face,
Work for 297,
Save us from more waste.

Hanford Victory Party (January 28, 2002)

  • by Kay Thode 
  • tune: Now That the Ball Is Over

Now that Fast Flux is ended,
Now we have won at last,
We celebrate our victory
Cause that dire threat has passed.
We thank all the people in this room
For all the work they’ve done,
Now we must all work to see that
Cleanup gets completely done.

We still have a federal budget
That shortchanges people’s health
And they are still squandering money
On missiles that take so much wealth.
We’ll keep demanding more dollars,
We will go on with the fight,
‘Til they’ve finished the cleanup
And the job has been done right.

Profiling Opera

  • by Monica Zucker
  • tune: Mack the Knife

Oh, police have perfect vision
To distinguish wrong from right.
Their decisions are made easy—
It’s like telling black from white.

Oh, the drug war gives incentive
For a thousand stops a day.
First they cuff you, then they search you.
You’re not guilty, but you pay.

Don’t go driving in the evening
In a white suburban block
With your shiny new red auto
Or they’ll put you in the dock.

Totem carver, deaf in one ear,
The Policeman called out “STOP!”
He didn’t hear him, just kept walking,
Do you think he heard the shots?

If they stop you on suspicion,
Don’t talk back or try to run.
You could end up on a morgue slab—
“We were sure he had a gun.”

Oh, police have perfect vision
To distinguish wrong from right.
Their decisions are made easy –
It’s like telling black from white.

Celebrate

  • by: Kay Thode
  • tune: That’s the Glory of Love

 
We’re gonna dance a little, prance a little,
Say goodbye to that reactor.
Heart of America,
You made it happen,
THANKS!

We’re gonna sing a little, chant a little,
Raise our glasses up a little.
We’re here to celebrate,
The end of Fast Flux,
For all time!
 

Back of the Bus

If you miss me at the back of the bus
You can’t find me nowhere.
Come on up to the front of the bus
I’ll be riding up there.
I’ll be riding up there,
I’ll be riding up there.
Come on up to the front of the bus,
I’ll be riding up there

If you’re looking for shelter
You can’t find it nowhere.
Come on up to the greenbelt,
Folks are camping up there…

If you miss me in the greenbelt
You can’t find me nowhere
Come on over to Nickelsville,
Folks are building up there…

If you miss me at Nickelsville
You can’t find me nowhere
Come on down to the jailhouse,
We’ll be bunking down there…

If you miss me at the jailhouse
You can’t find me nowhere
That’s cause we all stood together
And we’re still building up here!…