“Custodian” came about when I was challenged by my long time friend JoAnn Mar of KALW-FM in San Francisco to write a song about privatization. I remembered a man who called in when I was being interviewed by Don Jacobson on KBOO-FM in Portland, Oregon about a book I co-authored with Elizabeth Minnich (public philosopher, feminist, educator, author, my best friend for 60 years, my beloved partner and spouse for 40) about a book we co-authored titled The Fox in the Henhouse: How Privatization Threatens Democracy. The caller, Grant Walter, told me how he had lost his job as a school custodian because it was outsourced – privatized –and how much he and the kids in that school he took care of had lost as a result. It’s not in the song, but Grant was also President of SEIU Local 140, and there’s a happy ending to his story: The Oregon Supreme Court ruled in favor of the union members, and they were all offered their jobs back.
CUSTODIAN
–For Grant Walter
I was interviewed last week
On public radio
A man called up with something
That I didn’t know
My name is Grant, he said
Here’s what you need to hear
I’m a custodian –
At least I was until last year
This word custodian
It means to take good care
When something might have hurt the kids
Well, I was there
For any troubled kid
I was their right hand man
The school custodian
There to lend a guiding hand
But now the jobs we did
Have all been privatized
Our lives, the public good
Sold for the lowest price
A corporation does
The cleaning work we did
They want the money
Not to help some troubled kid
I see them on the street
Down at the movie show
My kids rush up to hug me
Grant, where did you go?
Their parents say to me
The school’s just not the same
If no one cares
Custodian is just a name
Now we are standing at the edge
Of a forest of lies
Where all we hold in common
Has been privatized
Where corporations own
Every corner of our land
When everything is private
Where will freedom stand
When those who only live for profit
Work to tear this country down
All we have to stand on
Is our common ground
And only we can find
Our way back home from here
We are custodians
Of all that we hold dear
We are custodians
Of all that we hold dear
Words and music by Si Kahn. © Joe Hill Music LLC (ASCAP). All rights reserved.