Yang, Ru-Men was raised on the family farm with the love of the land in the morning and the muscle in his arm out in the China Ocean on the island of Taiwan it’s a story worth the telling and I’ll sing it in a song the family farm is the rock of humanity’s anchor in the 21st century world war between the farmer and the banker the great corporate bullies ride on the money train where the farmers stand to lose the corporations stand to gain Yang, Ru-Men saw the danger comin’ from a dark and angry place and he thought of all the farmers whose lives would be displaced he made calls and he wrote letters but what good did it do politicians never read them nor the newspapers too Yang, Ru-Men went walkin’ one night the moon shone like a lantern and the stars were shinin’ bright and there came a voice talkin’ so clear inside his head maybe it was the ancestors, this is what it said when god closes a door he opens a window when god closes a door he opens a window Yang, Ru-Men the farmer made a paper box he folded in the corners and he weighted it with rocks with a little black powder and a little bit of rice a warning on the label, words of advice “Danger” said the paper box, the words were bright and bold “do not buy imported rice, our futures can’t be sold support the local farmers, resist the foreign trade” and he left it in the city where his point would sure be made and he left one at the bank and outside the railway station the little paper boxes with their little explanations at the government offices, the bomb squad on alert but they were only made of paper, no one ever got hurt they called him the Rice Bomber and they made a great campaign they said he was a terrorist and they vilified his name but in the farming country when these matters were discussed they would tip their hats and smile, and say “he’s one of us” (they said) when god closes a door he opens a window when god closes a door he opens a window seventeen paper rice bombs, seventeen times every one of them a statement though they called them each a crime and though they scoured through the country side they did not have a clue Yang, Ru-Men decided then just what he had to do he drove to the station to give himself away he said “I am the one you’re looking for, this is your lucky day “my name is Yang, Ru-Men” he said, and he took a little bow he said “I did it for the farmers and I do this for them now” “if you did it for the farmers, well, that’s just what you say “but we have you in our custody and that’s where you’re going to stay” and justice was a stone wall, it never shed a tear they tried and convicted and they gave him seven years seven years for seventeen little boxes of rice what kind of mathematics would arrive at such a price at the crossroads of the humanity the future holds its breath in the orders of uncertainty anything could happen next (because) when god closes a door he opens a window when god closes a door he opens a window the family farm is still the rock that holds humanity’s anchor in the 21^st century world war between the farmer and the banker one side has the money and the other has the plow and its anybody’s guess what happens now I went to visit Yang, Ru-Men, they had him in Taipei in the detention center, it was on a visiting day I didn’t speak his language and he didn’t speak mine there was Plexiglas between us, we didn’t have much time he said you have to hold your purpose and you have to hold on tight have faith in your accomplishments and don’t give up the fight and when the time was over, when they led him away he put his fist up in the air and I can still hear him say when god closes a door he opens a window when god closes a door he opens a window Less