John Walker's Blues

(Tuesday Treasure is a weekly song that is unheralded, long-lost, or buried somewhere deep on an album, yet deserves another listen.)

Well, the horror called the Bush Administration is coming to a close. And with the end of any administration, the president has already started receiving requests for pardons. The current president has given out fewer pardons than the previous two-termers Clinton and Reagan. And most experts don't expect him to change his ways.

And I don't expect him to consider a pardon of John Walker Lindh. The young man known as the American Taliban is asking for a shorter sentence. And he deserves it. Lindh was a peaceful young man on a spiritual quest who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was also a victim of the Bushies' bloodthirsty jingoism in leading up to the Iraq War.

Steve Earl's song John Walker's Blues got some press before it came out. Once out, it sank like a stone. Few stations dared play it. It's worth another listen. Check it out on Hear This on the right-hand side of the page. Or consider buying Earle's 2002 album Jerusalem.