protest songs blog ~ im gonna do dear mr president by p!nk

Dear Mr. President,
Come take a walk with me.
Let's pretend we're just two people and
You're not better than me.
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly.

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?
What do you feel when you look in the mirror?
Are you proud?

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why?

Dear Mr. President,
Were you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
How can you say
No child is left behind?
We're not dumb and we're not blind.
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pave the road to hell.

What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye?

Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
You don't know nothing 'bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
Oh

How do you sleep at night?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Dear Mr. President,
You'd never take a walk with me.
Would you? 

What social injustices/issues are discussed in the song ?

homelessness, war, deaths in Iraq, social inequality, prejudice, No child is left behind campaign, bush attempting to make abortion illegal, equal human rights, gay rights, Bush's hatred to the gay community, drug and alcohol abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, classism, poverty are all social issues, injustices that are discussed in this song.

Who is the artist?

P!nk and Billy Mann

How are they connected to a protest movement?

they voiced all the opinions the country had about its president at the time

What events were taking place in the year the song was written?

it was Martin Luther King day

Print the lyrics to the song. Explain the meaning of the song.

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street-HUD estimates, the homeless population has quadrupled in size in the last twenty years, while the number of beds available in shelters has fallen by approximately 57,000 but this wasn't a focus in bush's reign so Pink may be referring here to those left homeless after Katrina. Bush was widely criticized for his slow reaction to the threat of the Hurricane and his delayed response to the destruction and victims
How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye-refers to the death of American soldiers in Iraq. According to icasualties.org, under President Bush's administration (and at press time), over 3500 soldiers had perished as a result of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. also if you look at this chart the USA spends the combined amount of the next 11 top military spending countries. does anyone else think that's a bit extreme?
Dear Mr. President,
Were you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
How can you say
No child is left behind?-refers to President Bush's widely debated "No Child Left Behind" program, in which federal funding for schools is contingent on standardized test scores
 What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?-refers to President Bush's adamant pro-life stance. In accordance with the teachings of Bush's Methodist faith, President Bush believes that life begins at conception. Therefore, he has a track record of opposing all proposals that interfere with life before birth. This also includes most stem-cell research proposals.
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?-Again, in accordance with standard Methodist teachings, Bush is opposed to homosexual unions. In particular, President Bush has pushed for the "Marriage Protection Amendment," a piece of legislature which would define marriage as the union between a man and a woman. Bush has met controversy during his term when it was revealed that Dick Cheney's daughter was openly gay and having a child with her partner
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine-refers to allegations that Bush had an affinity for alcohol in his youth. Pink refers to cocaine here because of Bush's supposed arrest and ensuing discovery of cocaine possession in 1972. Bush neither confirms nor denies these allegations, saying only "when I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible."

Refer specifically to at least 2 stanzas in the lyrics to support your interpretation of the song. How did this song have a positive or negative effect on society?

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street and How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye  brought a positive aspect to the country because it made them look deeper to see if their president was a good choice for office

Do you think a song can make a difference?

depends on the song

Why do you like this song? (Meaning, personal associations, tune..)

I like how rebellious the song is because like she's yelling at the federal government I mean how bad ass is that and I also like how the song makes you emotional and makes you think and the tune keeps me engaged

 

If you were to write a protest song what would it be about? What genre of music would it be? Why?
if I were to write a protest song it would be about gay rights and the LGBTQ community because I don't think it gets talked enough about in our music world. I would probably write it in rock n roll genre because to me that's real music and I think it'd be totally awesome if I were in a rock n roll band I also think that most kids who are going through a tough time are listening to rock n roll because they're being out-casted and they can relate to their out-casted band musicians because right now hip hop and rap and pop have taken over the airwaves.

 

 

ASE 1 Ad campaign process

ok so basically I worked mostly solo on this project. to start we took portrait "mug shots" or just posed pictures so we could "cut them up". after that we fought with the iMovie program at school. when we realized it wouldn't work we decided to do it at home on my computer. because of scheduling difficulty I did the movie and Britt did the written process that we handed in. our design was what is the ase1 look? we decided that grabbing people at random was the best way to depict how our school dresses. although the trick to it is there is no look at ase 1. we decided that the song supermodel by clueless was a good song to play our pictures to. we took out the part where she talks about starving herself though. we showed bodies without heads and vice versa. then we put them together the way we were supposed to have them. I think it would have been more effective if we could have mixed and matched but this is what we had to work with based on time frames. although I think our movie conveyed what our goal was. to show ase is inclusive and you can be yourself without being bullied for it.