This page used to be a filk that I wrote to the tune of “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” (original words by Woody Guthrie; set to music by Martin Hoffman). I think that when I wrote it, sometime in the mid-1990s or so, I thought I was being clever by comparing farm workers to high-tech software workers, in terms of long hours worked and being treated impersonally, like cogs in a machine; but looking back on this piece, I’m now embarrassed and sad that I thought that was an appropriate comparison to make, given the huge differences between those groups of people in things like salaries, working conditions, and social status. Not to mention that few software workers have died in plane crashes while being deported en masse.

So I’ve removed the filk that was on this page. I considered just taking the page down, but I feel like that might come across as an attempt to erase the record of my having created this piece. I think it’s better to leave the page in place, but remove the text.

Leaving the page up also gives me the opportunity to use this page to point to my writeup of John McCutcheon performing “Deportee” in 2014, when he spoke about creating a memorial for the workers, and when the names of the dead were spoken aloud between verses of the song.