A Song for Crystal Mason

A Song for Crystal Mason      

A song for Crystal Mason, music video by Bette Korber

A Song for Crystal Mason, free download from CD baby


This song (lyrics and chords are at the end) and video are for Crystal Mason, an American citizen and mother of three. Crystal was arrested for casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election, because she was considered by election officials to be ineligible. For this she was sentenced to 5 years in prison. In Texas, felons have the right to vote after they are released from prison, but [here is the fine print] not while they are still under supervision. Crystal had served prison time for tax evasion, but by 2016 she was released and was back home with her family, had a job, things were going well. She did not know she was still ineligible to vote, so her provisional ballot was cast, but it was never counted. My heart broke for her and her family when I heard her story on Democracy Now. A 5-year prison sentence is an outrageously harsh response to a simple misunderstanding, and it seems such an excessive sentence was not about justice, but about voter intimidation. I was deeply moved when I heard the strength and dignity of her response to this situation. In the middle this, she was encouraging her own kids to vote, and to make a difference. Her spirit lifted her story from being one of voter intimidation to one of voter inspiration. So this song is for her. Civil rights groups are working with her on an appeal, and a hearing to review the case is set for Sept. 2019 – as I’m writing, it is just a few days away.

There is gofundme site for Crystal, to try to help her keep her house and keep her extended family afloat in this very hard situation; please consider helping her and her family if you can. Deepest thanks to those of you who already pitched in.

Crystal's gofundme, justice4crystal

If you would like to read more about Crystal's story, see:

Texas Made An Example Out Of Crystal Mason — For Trying To Vote 

ACLU on Crystal Mason

 Democracy Now on Crystal Mason


A bit more about this song video, if you’re curious. 

Butterflies.
Crystal really loves butterflies, as a symbol of hope and new beginnings (see the story by Sam Levine). Butterflies are such a part of her it seems that a few of them just flew out the creative commons and into this video, and landed in the song.

Thank you, Crystal.
I had no idea if Crystal would be OK with this song when I wrote it, and I was worried about how she would feel about it. I tried to keep the story as true to her as I could from reading the news about her case. When I found her at last, and asked her permission to put this  online, she not only said yes, but she kindly shared some lovely pictures of herself, and of her friends and family to include in the video. I am also grateful to for Allison V. Smith, a Dallas based photographer, for sharing a couple of her beautiful photos of Crystal and her family.

Amazing Grace.
I’m ending with a harmonica instrumental version of Amazing Grace for the video credits, as Crystal is a person of faith. This hymn is important to people in my family; it was my Uncle Scorp's favorite song, it helped him through very hard times. He used to ask my sister Dorothy to sing it for him. So this little harmonica tune is to honor Crystal's faith, to honor the loving memory of my Uncle Scorp, and to honor my sister's 12-string guitar; it goes from my family to hers.

Voting Rights.
Over the past two decades voting rights have systematically been diminished in our country, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly chosen not to protect our citizens’ right to vote. In 1965 the Voting Rights Act was passed to ensure that states and local governments did not pass laws or implement policies that deny American citizens the right to vote based on race. In 2006, Congress reauthorized the Voting Rights Act in a overwhelming bipartisan vote to support our democracy: 390-33 in the House (all 33 were Republicans), 98-0 in the Senate. But in 2013, in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court overturned a critical part of the Act, a part that had prevented discriminatory voting laws from being implemented in jurisdictions with a history of discrimination. Since that decision, according to Common Cause, 20 states have passed restrictive new voting laws.

Voter ID laws are one way that voting restrictions can specifically target and disenfranchise people of color. For example, in 2018, North Dakota implemented a voter ID law requiring an ID with a physical address, to vote. This made tens of thousands of North Dakotans suddenly ineligible to vote, and most of the disenfranchised were Native American, because it was common among people who live on reservations to have just a PO Box on their IDs. The Supreme Court in Oct. 2018 decided not to block the North Dakota voter ID law, so this law went into effect just one month before the Nov. 2018 elections. This left almost no time for Native Americans to figure out how to get a new IDs issued with a street address before the election. Native Americans vote predominantly Democratic, and in Nov. 2018, the Democratic incumbent Sen. Heidi Heitkamp lost the election to Republican Kevin Cramer.

I’m fed up. Enough with gerrymandering, with allowing massive corporate donations to essentially buy elections, enough with voter intimidation, with the ID laws that deny our citizens the right to vote, with the archaic electoral college! Enough with turning eligible voters away from the polls, and making the polls inaccessible to people.  Enough with tolerating voter intimidation. Enough with allowing Russians to meddle with our social media and spread lies that pit us against one another.

We need to elect just leaders and judges who will protect the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, people who will protect our democracy. So for the past few years I’ve been proud stand with my good neighbors near election time, and volunteer to try to call up the vote, to walk up the vote, to stand with organizations I believe in, just to do what I can. I’m even trying to sing up the vote. Figure out what works for you to do, and do it. Be kind, listen, but talk politics, please! We are a democracy, for Heaven’s sake! Its our responsibility. We are each just one person, but together we make a nation.

"Voting is the foundation stone for political action." -- Martin Luther King

The American people not only have to get out the vote, we have to do it at a level that enables us to overcome these deliberate obstacles, and turn things around while we can. If we can do this I hold out hope we can elect leaders who will move us towards a fair democracy, and towards human and environmental justice. But we first need leap past these deliberate hurdles. We have to hold despair at bay, because our only hope to succeed is having enough hope to act, and this begins with the courage and determination to vote good people into office despite the hurdles.

This will require that eligible voters step up in numbers like never before. American citizens have this bright spark of power, the right to vote. Let that spark shine: learn, think, speak, and vote, and together we can create a better future. Given the climate crisis, and America’s place in the world, it in fact may be our only hope for any future.

Reason to hope.
 In 2018 it was heartening to see the United States House of Representatives beginning to actually resemble the people it represents – 24 people of color were newly elected, a record for our nation, so I added their official portraits to the song.  Also, in January 2019 more women stepped into the House to represent us than ever before.

Russia’s Pander.
I am unreasonably proud to have thought of something that rhymed with gerrymander. It wasn’t easy.

Finally, are you registered to vote? If not, please register, and, “get out there and make a difference – right now!”


A Song for Crystal Mason         
By Bette Korber                         Copyright Feb. 9, 2019

[Adapted Creative Commons Copyright (see below) with the following addendum: Anybody is free to sing this song live on any occasion, but if you would like to record it to sell it, please get it touch and we can discuss.]

Intro                                                                
     Am                                                          E7
Crystal Mason stepped out of the prison gate       
    Am                   E7
Into the Texas sun,                       
      G                                            Dm
Breathed the sweet air of freedom
               Am        E7         Am   
Folded in her family’s loving arms.               

Crystal, she got her story straight,           
Convicted once for tax evasion,                
Now her children had their mother home,            
She had a job, was getting education.           

2016, November comes                         
So Crystal went out to vote.                    
Name’s not on the registrar’s list,                
Provisional ballot, filled with hope.            

Chorus
  Am                                                              E7
Wake up wake up wake up sweet democracy       
 Am                            E7                
Wake up sweet democracy                   
 F                                      Am
Money doesn’t equal wisdom               
  Dm                                                Am                    
Don’t you let them buy your mind.               

Texas felons have the right to vote,            
After they’ve served their time,               
But not while under supervision               
No one told Crystal this would be a crime.       

Springtime comes to Tarrant County Texas,        
Police come to Crystal’s door               
She was arrested for not knowing,               
Prosecutor’s moral compass hits the floor.       

If you’re white, and make this fine print mistake,   
The judge will slap you with a fine.               
If you’re black, with Lady Justice weeping,           
The judge will see that you serve jail time.           

Repeat Chorus

“Crystal Mason, do you plan to vote again?”               
“I do. I do. I’m encouraging my kids… ”                   
“To get out there, and make a difference right now.”**   
Head held high, courage in her vow.       

Our many colors make us beautiful,               
Our many stories make us wise,                       
When the will of our free people is expressed       
America’s heart and strength will rise.           

Repeat Chorus

Outro
Am                          E7
Disenfranchise, gerrymander,                           
Am                                     E7
Intimidate, obfuscate, Russia’s pander            
Am           E7
ID laws, address denied,                   
Am                             E7
No time off work, long lines besides           

   G               Dm             Am
ENOUGH! ENOUGH! RISE UP!
   G               Dm             Am                
ENOUGH! ENOUGH! RISE UP!               
 C     G     Am
Wa-ke   Up                               
Am   G     Am
Rise and Shine.           

** This bit is quoted from Amy Goodman’s question and Crystal’s response on Democracy now.

Music Credits.

Adapted Creative Commons Copyright for the song: CC BY-NC4.0 for “A Song For Crystal Mason” with the following addendum: Anybody is free to sing this song with attribution live on any occasion, including in venues where they intend to make or raise money. But if you would like to record it to sell it, please get it touch with me and we can discuss.

For the video, please use and share it as you like, but respect the CC copyrights noted in the credits and continue to attribute the work images included in the video and their copyrights.