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‘Illegal’ – A New Protest Song Lyric by Adam Astra

On By Adam AstraIn Music, Original Music, Protest SongsLeave a comment

Welcome back to the blog, comrades!

Regrettably, this is only my second post since the creation of this blog early last year. Please know that I have big plans for this year and hope to be sharing much more in 2026. My focus this year will be on the protest song, primarily in the form of a weekly project I’m calling ’52 Protest Songs.’ This will be similar to my ’52 Form’ poetry project from my former blog, Astra Poetica, in that the posts will be weekly. It will be different in that I will spend much more than one week prepping and revising each post—in fact, I began researching for this project more than a year ago. I’m not quite ready to launch this new project, but I do have some original music to share with you in the meantime!

In addition to this new content, I’ll periodically bring over refreshed and revised content previously published on other sites. My hope is to have everything available here, or at the very least, discoverable from here.

Thanks again for joining me. And now, without further ado…my newest song.

“How can a human being be illegal?”
– Elie Wiesel*

‘Illegal’ by Adam Astra

Of all the things a human being can be
Right or wrong, weak or strong
Imprisoned or free
There’s one thing that’s simply
An impossibility

A human being cannot be illegal

A human being can be
A member of a gang
A gang that terrorizes
Kidnaps and detains
You can hide your face
Withhold your name
And treat it like a game
But you will reap your
Portion of the blame
Regret and shame will find you
And bind you just the same

Because a human being cannot be illegal
A human being cannot be illegal

A human being can be
Manipulated
By manufactured outrage
Strategically created
To sell the story of a righteous war
A holy land invaded
Have you traded your old friends
Your own family
For a fleeting sense of power
Over an imagined enemy?
Do you find your heart and mind
Now separated?
Are you left feeling alone
And alienated?

Because a human being cannot be illegal
A human being cannot be illegal

A human being can be
Dehumanized
Ostracized, objectified
Their dignity denied
Language loaded with hatred
Designed to demonize
You call him a criminal
You call her an alien
You call them all animals
You call them illegals

But a human being cannot be illegal
A human being cannot be illegal

Of all the things a human being can be
What will we be?

© Adam Astra (2026)

*Quoting Elie Wiesel

You, who are so-called illegal aliens, must know that no human being is “illegal.” That is a contradiction in terms. Human beings can be beautiful or more beautiful, they can be fat or skinny, they can be right or wrong, but illegal? How can a human being be illegal?

– Elie Wiesel, from his 1985 essay ‘The Refugee’

The quote that introduces my song is attributed to writer, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, and served as a primary source of inspiration. The full quote, which I likely first encountered on social media, is featured above. As with any quote encountered in this way, I did my best to trace it back to a verifiable source. Wikiquote, a wiki I hold more reliable and trustworthy than most, points to the 1985 essay “The Refugee.” This essay was reportedly featured in the book Sanctuary: A Resource Guide for Understanding and Participating in the Central American Refugees’ Struggle by Gary MacEóin (1985). I hope to someday be able to read the full essay to put to rest any lingering doubts about the quote’s authenticity. Until then, I’ll trust the information I have available to me.


Woody Guthrie’s ‘Deportees’

Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves? /
The radio says, “They are just deportees”

“Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)”

Another source of inspiration was “Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),” a song (written as a poem) by Woody Guthrie in 1948, that was later put to music by Martin Hoffman. Woody’s own inspiration for the song came from news accounts of a tragic plane wreck that occurred in January of that year, claiming the lives of 28 migrant farm workers, who were en route to Mexico, being forcefully deported after doing hard labor for little pay on the farms of California. Woody particularly took issue with the fact that these 28 victims of an unjust, exploitative, and ultimately murderous immigration and economic policy went unnamed in the majority of reports shared in the news. He wrote his poem in part to right this wrong and to shine a light on both the identity and humanity of these 28 souls, tragically lost and dishonored even in death. Read the full lyrics here, via Genius. I’ll likely write more on this song in a future post.

Stay Tuned for ‘Illegal’ Full Song Recording – Coming Soon!

Thanks for reading!


~Content was created without the use of A.I.~
~Media content may be subject to copyright~
~Original content © Adam Astra 2026~

Woody Guthrie & The Folk National Anthem

On By Adam AstraIn Music, Protest Songs, Songwriter Spotlight, SongwritingLeave a comment
Woody Guthrie, half-length portrait, facing slightly left, holding guitar] / World Telegram photo by Al Aumuller (1943). Courtesy of Library of Congress.
Woody Guthrie (1943). Courtesy of Library of Congress.

*This is the first post in a larger exploration of American Protest Music, Songwriting, and Poetry. If you enjoy this post, please subscribe, share, and comment. Thanks for your time and attention, comrades!

“This Land is Your Land” – The Folk National Anthem

Here in the US, we have an official National Anthem and a Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Closer in spirit to the latter, I say there’s room for another—a Folk National Anthem—and I can’t think of a better candidate than Woody’s best-known song. A song that celebrates not only the unity of a nation, but calls for the sharing of its bounty, champions its freedom-demanding spirit, and honors the glorious diversity found in its natural wonders, its bustling cities, and its hopeful inhabitants.

For me, “This Land Is Your Land” embodies the best kind of patriotism: a love for your country celebrating its wonders and its people, whose impact far exceeds the ‘official’ anthem, with its flag-waving, war-glorifying nationalism. Maybe there’s still a place for the lofty and bombastic “Star-Spangled Banner,” but at this moment, for me, every note of it rings hollow. If this is a democracy (even one on life-support), I should get a vote for my national anthem, and I cast my vote here.

The Radical Verses

Depending on your personal experience with Woody’s masterpiece, you may have expected the above recording to go on for two or three more verses. These verses—which Woody himself never recorded, and were therefore not widely known until much later, thanks to the efforts of his son, Arlo—are sometimes called radical and socialist and bring it into the realm of the protest song.

The ‘complete,’ or ‘extended,’ version of the song may have been first performed by Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen as part of the “We Are One” concert for Barack Obama’s first presidential inauguration (January 18, 2009). While we’ll sadly never get to hear Woody sing this version in his own voice and style, performances like this still capture the spirit of both the song and the Great Poet-Folk Singer himself.

Patriotism & Protest

After watching the video above, I ask you to read the official song lyrics at woodyguthrie.org. Then decide for yourself which version you prefer. For me, “This Land Is Your Land” meets every requirement for a Folk National Anthem even without the additional verses. But with them, with their defiance of barriers in the name of freedom, critique of wealth inequality, and unwavering spirit of self-determination, it becomes not just an anthem, but one of the greatest protest songs ever written. I say it’s time (past time) to embrace and bring into balance both of these aspects—the hopeful patriotism and the defiant protest—not just in “This Land Is Your Land” and similar works of art, but in our communities, our families, and ourselves.

One Nation, Many Anthems

Who says that a nation needs to be limited to one (or even a small number) of national anthems? A nation’s anthems should be as numerous and diverse as its peoples. So let’s embrace the Black National Anthem, a Folk National Anthem, a Mexican-American National Anthem, a Trans National Anthem, and on and on. After all, the US is not a melting pot, with all cultures melding into a single, flavorless homogeny. It will take many voices, singing many anthems, to bring this nation into harmony.

Dig Deeper

Read
– More Official Lyrics from woodyguthrie.org
– Song Page from Wikipedia
– The Story Behind the Song from Library of Congress
– This Land is Your Land Picturebook (2020)

Watch
This Land Is Your Land: The Story of an American Anthem – YouTube

~Content was created without the use of A.I.~
~Media content may be subject to copyright~
~Original content © Adam Astra 2026~