Ten Thousand Trees
Moringa tree planting and Peace Villages in Vietnam.
Words and music by Sarah Pirtle © 2021, Discovery Center Music, BMI
Lyrics
(1) Down came the poison from the sky,
White dust choking the mangrove trees.
Twisted stumps hang from the stems
where the planes sprayed furiously
that Agent Orange treachery, Agent Orange atrocity.
And the bird sings healing, healing in the moringa tree.
Chorus:
Ten thousand trees for Vietnam
Come heal the land, come bring a new dawn.
We plant a new legacy each time we plant a moringa tree.
And the bird sings healing, healing in the moringa tree.
(2) In the hospital nursery Vietnamese healers bring sanctity.
American helpers in company work to heal catastrophe.
Fourth generation children we see as villages of peace come to be.
And the bird sings healing, healing in the moringa tree.
Chorus
(3) Stand together all who hear
the green voice growing in the mountain near
and the pulse in the vine that won’t be denied
by guns or bombs or deep fear inside.
Bring the ceaseless growing. (2x)
And the bird sings healing, healing in the moringa tree.
Chorus:
Ten thousand trees for Vietnam
Come heal the land, come bring a new dawn.
We plant a new legacy each time we plant a moringa tree.
And the bird sings healing.
About This Song
Pat Hynes, as director of Traprock Center for Peace and Justice, succeeded in raising $16,000 to plant many more than a thousand moringa trees in response to Agent Orange devastation, and support continues to grow. Contributions for the Peace Villages in Vietnam have also been part of her work.
Pat was a Professor of Environmental Health. She describes why she traveled to Vietnam in March 2014. She aimed, “to investigate the plight of 3rd generation Agent Orange-dioxin victims, dioxin contaminated sites, and ecological restoration in order to inform Americans of the on-going legacy of the “American War” in Vietnam and our responsibility and opportunities for undoing this legacy.” A dozen Peace Villages, as Pat explains, “were organized and built by the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA) with funds from the Vietnam government and international supporters.”
As I recorded this song I imagined I was there singing to children, doctors and other healers in a Peace Village. I began this song in 1978 when I was watching the movie “Ecocide: A Strategy of War,” from Green Mountain Post Films. It was filmed and narrated by zoologist Dr. E.W. Pfeiffer. It is described that “Pfeiffer was an outspoken critic of the tactics who made five trips to Indonesia to study and document the ecological effects of the war on behalf of the Scientist’s Institute for Public Information.” Luckily I saved the song lyrics.
I used lyrics for verses one and three from this original text. For the melody of the opening lines of the chorus, I listened to Vietnamese folk music from Ha Long Bay.
Randy Kehler whose peace witness inspired Daniel Elsberg to release the Pentagon Papers has been a friend for forty years, and their courage is bound into this song. As a teenager in the 1960’s I was devoted with my friends to stopping the Vietnam War. As a teacher in the 1970’s I taught students about the Vietnamese holiday of Tet, the most popular festival in Vietnam honoring the arrival of spring. All of this made the writing of this song particularly meaningful.