(Source: NJ DEP Hearing Transcript: “In The Matter Of William Wolfe” (9/21/94)
When I was a kid, some of my favorite TeeVee shows were “Branded” (1965 – 66); “The Fugitive” (1963 – 67); and “Kung Fu” (1972-75).
You can watch the introduction to “Branded” and see for yourself what that was all about.
Here are the lyrics:
Branded!
Scorned as the one who ran.
What do you do when you’re branded, and you know you’re a man.
Wherever you go, for the rest of your life
You must prove, you’re a man.
Branded!
Marked with the cowards’ shame.
What do you do when you’re branded,
Will you fight for your name?
He was innocent,
Not a charge was true,
But the world will never know….
Stripped of all his rank,
Stripped of all his pride,
Still he held his head up high!
Branded!
Friends are a thing unknown,
What do you do when you’re branded?
Can you go it alone?
Branded!
That’s not the way to die!
What do you do when you’re branded?
Can you live with a lie?
No, I can’t live with lies.
I couldn’t live with lies while I was employed by NJ DEP – and I could not when I was employed by non-governmental environmental groups – and I still can’t as a retired nomad.
In hindsight, I guess those TV shows all shared a common theme: the story of a good man, who is falsely accused of wrongdoing and unjustly dismissed from honorable society, goes out on his own and his acts vindicate his true nature.
