Mary Gauthier on The Crucifixion and ICE

Mary Gauthier has joined the list of artists using song to protest against U.S. immigration enforcement.

The crucifixion of Christ has inspired Americana stars Mary Gauthier and Eliza Gilkyson to join the protest-in-music against the much-debated immigration crackdown across the U.S. The pair have written “Soldier of Fortune” which questions the morality of gun-for-hire agents and Gauthier has now released it as a single.

It has, of course, been motivated by sad events in Minneapolis where agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) led a large-scale campaign to remove non-citizens accused of violating immigration laws. It got global headline4s when ICE agents shot dead two residents - mother-of-three Renee Good and VA nurse Alex Pretti - during wide-ranging protests in the city.

 Legend Bruce Springsteen – a long critic of President Trump – and British folkie Billy Bragg – a known activist - were among the first of the big names to protest in song. In fact, Bragg got in first, within 48 hours of Pretti’s death. He wrote and recorded “City of Heroes” on Sunday, 25 January, and released it the following day. Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis” – a direct reference to his 1994 classic “Streets of Philadelphia” – was also a rapid response. He wrote it over the same weekend, recording it on Tuesday 27 January before releasing it the next day.

Now Gauthier – someone very familiar with the military – has delivered. She described in a Facebook posting how the idea for the song came while attending her nephew’s wedding. “I was sitting in the Catholic church waiting for the service to start, and I started staring at the Stations of the Cross. The Roman guards depicted. in every station looked very, very familiar. To me, they looked like an ancient version of ICE.”

The first verse inventively reflects her thoughts while in the church:

You were the Roman soldier, you hid behind the helmet and sword

You were only following orders when you nailed his hands to the board

You mocked him, “Hail, King of the Jews! "You gambled for his clothes

You heard his mama crying and said, “Hey that’s just how it goes"

The chorus poignantly critiques the lack of morality throughout history:

Soldier of Fortune, a devil pacing the cage

You’re nothing new, we know about you

You’ve been here in every age, soldier of fortune

The second verse condemns the German soldiers for driving trucks full of innocents to concentration camps where they’d never be heard from again.

But it is the final verse where Gauthier and Gilkyson return to the harsh reality of America today with lyrical detail of the tragic deaths in Minneapolis

You're nothing but a gun for hire, hiding behind a mask

You didn't care that she was somebody's mother

When you shot her in the face through the window glass

A VA nurse on a city street, full of the courage you lack

A beacon of mercy, helping a stranger

And you fired ten bullets into his back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2LXT0m3iaU

"This song is dedicated to the people courageously fighting state terror everywhere. In memory of Alex Jeffrey Pretti and Renee Good, shot dead on the streets of Minneapolis by ICE," Gauthier wrote on Facebook.

"Soldier of Fortune" is not the first anti-ICE song to invoke Nazi Germany in the current actions of enforcement. Like Gauthier, Bragg's "City of Heroes" references the events of the holocaust. Specifically, he cites the historical lessons of German Pastor Martin Niemoller, an anti-Nazi dissident who was imprisoned in a concentration camp. After his release in 1946, Niemoller composed a now-famous confessional prose which warned of the dangers of being a bystander in a time of state-sponsored terror.

Bragg's composition begins with the ghost of Niemoller, originally a supporter of Hitler who ignored the evil actions of the Nazi Party until he could suffer silently no more:

The ghost of Martin Niemoller

Haunts the halls of history

When they came for the communists

He said "It's nothing to do with me"

When they came for the democrats

He had nothing to say

And when they came for Jews

He just looked the other way

His silence didn't save him

When they came for him as well

The lyrics cleverly evolve to events in Minneapolis and, in particular, the shooting of Good and Pretti. And Bragg concludes that the dissidents of today have learned from the likes of Niemoller:

When they murdered our sister

I got in their face

When they murdered our brother

I still got in their face

In Dachau Martin Niemoller

Suffered for his complicity

But in this city of heroes

We learn the lessons of history

"It seemed to me that the people of Minneapolis had learned the lessons of history and, instead of standing by as their neighbours were rounded up for deportation, they got in the face of the oppressors," Bragg wrote on Substack. "To celebrate this act of defiance, I set to compose a song which contrasted Niemoller's rueful confessional with the encouragement of the Minneapolis resistors."

Unlike Bragg and Gauthier, Springsteen avoids any historical implications and goes straight for the political jugular on "Streets of Minneapolis." He has no hesitation in naming not only President Trump, but two cf his administration cohorts - Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and then-Secretary of the DHS Kristi Noem:

Trumps federal thugs beat up on

His face and his chest

Then we heard the gunshots

And Alex Pretti lay in the snow dead

Their claim was self-defense sir

Just don't believe your eyes

It's our blood and bones

And these whistles and phones

Against Miller and Noem's dirty lies

Critics of Gauthier's contribution to the militarized enforcement controversy should be reminded that she in fact has a proud history of supporting American veterans and their families. A decade ago, she had a year-long association with the non-profit group SongwritingWith:Soldiers. And in 2018 she released a superb concept album, the Grammy-nominated Rifles and Rosary Beads. All 11 tracks were co-written with veterans and their families. And there was little white-washing of military service or life beyond as she and her co-writers documented the effects of war - both physical and psychological.

One song in particular, "Iraq," dealt with the scourge of sexual harassment in the military. Co-written with army veteran Brandy Davidson, it cleverly relates the true challenge of a female mechanic in a war zone.

I was an army mechanic, I worked with the men

I worked on my back, I tried to fit in

Torque wrenches and ratchets, multimeters and scales

Grease on my face, grease on my hands, grease under my nails

And it was so hard to see

Until it attacked

My enemy wasn't Iraq

Given the emotional intensity of her songs on Rifles and Rosary Beads, it is no surprise she has chosen to contribute to the chilling reality of life where gun-toting law enforcement agents patrol the streets, hiding behind a mask.

Paul Cutler

Editor Crossroads - American Music Appreciation

You're nothing but a gun fo

r hire, hiding behind a mask