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A Cross-Classroom Project for Spring 2007
Welcome!
Welcome to our English 103 Cross-Classroom blog project! We will be, in groups from four different English 103 classes, discussing various war poems/lyrics in terms of how they use rhetoric and the messages they convey.
Blog Archive
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2007
(13)
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March
(13)
- Group One: Max B. (19), Staci T. (19), John E. (33...
- Group Two: Megan B. (19), Lily B. (33), Hayley R. ...
- Group Three: Sarah B. (19), Devyn L. (33), Tom C. ...
- Group Four : Nathaniel C. (19), Jan W. (19), Mary ...
- Group Five : Rachel D. (19), Rob P. (19), Justin R...
- Group Six : Elise F. (19), Sarah B. (33), Scott W....
- Group Seven : Scott S. (19), Bryson T. (19), Kirst...
- Group Eight : Lindsey H. (19), Jamia B. (33), Will...
- Group Nine : Valerie N. (19), Mandy Z. (33), Sean ...
- Group Ten : Tonya S. (19), Ashley T. (19), Kenny D...
- Group Eleven : Kate S. (19), Sydney D. (33), Danie...
- Group Twelve : Anna J. (19), Stephen M. (19), Geor...
- Guide for the Rhetoric & War Cross-Classroom Blog
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March
(13)
19 comments:
Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue (The Angry American)
Toby Keith
American girls and American guys will always stand up and salute;
Will always recognize
When we see ol' glory flying,
There's a lot of men dead,
So we can sleep in peace at night when we lay down our head.
My daddy served in the army,
Where he lost his right eye.
But he flew a flag out in our yard 'til the day that he died.
He wanted my mother, my brother, my sister and me
To grow up and live happy in the land of the free.
Now this nation that I love has fallen under attack.
A mighty sucker punch came flying in from somewhere in the back.
Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye,
Man we lit up your world like the Fourth of July.
Hey Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist.
And the eagle will fly,
And there's gonna be Hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell!
It's gonna feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you...
Brought to you courtesy of the Red, White and Blue!
Oh, Justice will be served and the battle will rage.
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage
You'll be sorry that you messed with the US of A
'Cuz we'll put a boot in your ass
It's the American way.
Hey Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist.
And the eagle will fly,
And there's gonna be Hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell!
And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you...
Brought to you courtesy of the Red, White and Blue!
Of the Red, White and Blue..
Of my Red, White and Blue...
This song "Courtesty of the Red, White, and Blue" is one of my favorites because it portrays just how protective and loving Americans are of their country. It gets across the fact that no matter who are if you mess with America we will come at you with flying colors and you will not know what hit you. It also celebrates war veterans and how they, in the past fought for our country and how we will fight now to keep that love for America alive. My favorite verses in this song are "Man we lit up your world like the Fourth of July" and "the eagle will fly". These two verses convey the fact that when one part of our country is attacked all of America suffers and we will all come together to fight the enemy and to right what went wrong.
Hey Group,
My name is Sammy Lortz and I am a business major. The beginning of the song recognizes the soldiers fighting in the war are protecting the freedom and peace of our nation which is very important for the American public to realize. The lyrics use strong images like “the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist” to create emotion. Obviously, the song is in response to the 9/11 attacks where “a mighty sucker punch” surprised our nation. While some people in America are against the war, this song clearly supports it and hearing phrases like “Now this nation I love has fallen under attack” makes me support the war. I think the duty of U.S. soldiers is often taken for granted, but this song tells the soldiers we do care and support them. “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” is a source of inspiration for the troops to want to serve the U.S. and for the citizens of our nation to come together to support the country, the war, and the soldiers.
Sammy
Hey Guys,
My name is Staci and I am a freshman business major. I'm really glad that i get to talk about this song, it is one of my favorites. The way it starts with a war story shows me hwo lots of families are affected by the war, even in a negative way, yet still majorily support the war effort. The part about the sucker punch is true and i really like the way he phrased that. The chorus is awesome but i also enjoy the line "this big dog will fight when you rattle his cage." I love the way that Toby Keith portrays the war and the fact that we were brutally attacked. This is somehting that is normally lakcing in songs with the current war as the main focus. I'm glad that Toby Keith is supporting the war and listening to this song makes me even more supportive than I was before.
Hey Guys,
My name’s Max Black and I’m a freshman pre-professional health major. I’ll start off by saying that most of you probably won’t agree with me, and that’s fine by me, this is just what I think and that I’m not trying to change any of your opinions. What I get from the song is that it’s about supporting the troops who are out there ensuring our freedom and supporting America and President Bush in general. I do find it to be a little harsh though and even inappropriate in some ways. It’s clearly about 9/11 with the whole “A mighty sucker punch came flying in from somewhere in the back” and I was all for us going into Afghanistan, but I don’t think we went about it the right way, and clearly Toby Keith does. He states “Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye, Man we lit up your world like the Fourth of July” and “You'll be sorry that you messed with the US of A, 'Cuz we'll put a boot in your ass, It's the American way”. Is that really how we want to be our country to be portrayed, that if you f*** with us, we’ll f*** you up a million times worse? Doesn’t that make us just as bad as them? Sure they drew the first blow, but does that justify us going and doing something worse to them? We were so hurt by the fact that innocent people were killed so for reprisal we go and kill thousands and thousands of their innocent people. It just doesn’t make sense to me. He portrays America as a bully that’s insane with vengeance, and it’s true, I just wish it weren’t.
Hey,
I'm John E. and I'm starting to actually like country music and I don't really like this song but I do kind of like the message. Most of the American public act like they want to be assertive and take people to war but once we do some people change their attitudes. I like this song because it pretty much shows the pride we take in our country and the freedom we have been given by victory in previous wars. Of course war is ugly but sometimes it just seems the only option and if you have to do it then I think you should do the the way Toby Keith sings about in this song.
-John E.
My name is McLean S. and I believe that the message Toby Keith was trying present is based upon the security that we have because of the men and women who faught for our country. He talks about how much of his family faught in wars to help give this country the freedom that it has. He praises this country for its colors, and gives brief descriptions of how we have conquered threats. I believe he writes this to motivate those of us who might not understand the full extent that soldiers went through to give us the freedom that we have. It is a great message, and hopefully spreads patriotism around the country.
I also think that Toby Keith really isn't taking a position on the war, but is instead showing how protective we are of our freedom because of how much it took to achieve it. I do agree that we could have made better decisions, but I believe Toby Keith is mainly using our actions to show how protective we are of our freedom and not to show which political party he might belong to. I hope people use this song to strenghten their quest to protect our freedom instead of criticizing our country's actions.
After reading most of the comments, I have concluded that they tend to lean toward the idea of the song promoting the protection of America's freedom. There is no doubt that this song strongly supports the protection of freedom, but I also feel as if it might ignore the fact that the prevention of war is the number one priority. It says that if our cages are rattled then we will attack. I feel as if our country isn't represented correctly at all times with comments like that. We certaintly try to prevent war before we attack if we face problems. If we go into war then this song does well in describing the importance of protecting the freedom, but it makes war sound a little too necessary at times.
McLean Sims
Hello again,
So,now that everyone has commented, it was interesting to read everyone's opinions. I really liked the idea that the song is about how protective we are of our freedom. I can really see that message and think it is a good take on the song. Also the fact that war is sometimes the only option that people can see and sometimes i feel as if that was the only option we had. I also thought the opinion that was different than mine was interesting to read. I know that there are people out there with opinions that differ from mine and i think its good to be aware of those and to think about it. I think that comparing the war in Afghanistan to the war in Iraq was an unique way to think about what the song is saying about the war. Also the fact that the song shows America as a bully is true and we are seen by some as a bully. Often i think we forget that fact, even though people do see us as bullies. I was suprised that as many people generally favored the song as they did and that more were not against the message of the song.
Everyone has commented and honestly I’m not very surprised by what I saw. There were many comments that supported the war, and some flat out said that and how they supported how we handled the problems our country has faced. This is shown when Staci said “I'm glad that Toby Keith is supporting the war and listening to this song makes me even more supportive than I was before”. People also made their point clear not so bluntly like when Michelle T. said “…we will all come together to fight the enemy and to right what went wrong”. Now clearly if you read my other post, you’re know that I don’t support the war, so these obviously go against my beliefs, but that’s fine. Other posts made it sound like the song was just about American pride, which I can understand, but I personally think it’s about a little more than that. There were also comments that I completely agreed with like when someone quoted a lyric about the aggressiveness of America and how that lyric incorrectly represents or at least should be an incorrect representation of our country. A lot of the posters liked the song, but I may be alone with this and say I’m not too fond of it.
-Max
Hey this is John Epps again and after reading everybody's comments it's cool to see some differing opinions. No matter how someone stands on the war itself, obviously Toby Keith is for it as I am too. I think the song is a touch aggressive yeah but I'm proud to be in an aggressive country like America, sometimes you have to be. Sometimes you have to send the message you're a somewhat loose cannon so don't set us off. Of course this isn't the right way to go about things all the time, I still like the mindset. One last rant I know many people don't approve of going to war for the reasons we did or at all. Either way people would be mad, people were upset that George H. Bush didn't go after Hussein and I am positive with a doubt people would be all over George W. if he had done nothing after what happened on 9/11. That's just my opinion though and I'm glad I got this post done on time haha. Take care everyone.
- John Epps
Hey group,
After reading all the comments I think everyone had very legitimate reasons for their view on the song and the war. I think we all agreed that the song is about supporting our troops and America and boosting the patriotism in our country. Like Mclean and Max said, the song does misrepresent the U.S. when using lyrics like “cuz we’ll put a boot in your ass/ it’s the American way” because it shows we are a bully even though I don’t think we are overly aggressive. To answer Max’s questions, I don’t think it makes us as bad as them because we retaliated after they purposely flew planes into the twin towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania to kill thousands of innocent people. And I don’t think we purposely killed their innocent citizens; that is a part of war you can’t avoid. I agree with John that war was the only option, the war in Afghanistan that is, for us as a nation in order to protect our freedom and country against terrorists. Good job everyone.
Sammy L.
Hey group, it's Michelle Tatham. I really enjoyed reading all the comments and they said pretty much what I expected them to say. Everyone has their own opinion on war and this song definitely supports it, but several people do not support war and think that there are different ways to go about fixing problems. Everyone felt like the song has very strong lyrics toward the enemy and it does. It does a great job of conveying it obviously because everyone picked up on how strong his passion was for war. The message is very clear that if you mess with America we will respond without hesitation.
Hey again,
Well i'm glad that everyone has commented on the song and the general message of it. Like Michelle said, the message is clear and if you mess with America we will react. Some may disagree with this idea while others fully support it. The medium i chose to go along with this song is pretty typical, just an American Flag, flying in the sky. While this may seem pretty simple, i just always imagine a flag when i hear this song. The beginning when Toby is talking about the flag flying in the air and then what the flag reminds him of is one of my favorite parts. Them flying flag until he died in the yard, i think that is something that many veterans do. Many americans also associate patriotism with the flag and patriotism is somewhat of the theme of the song. While choosing a flag may have been simple, i think that it really indentifies with all the different situations and things mentioned in the song.
This has been a fun and interesting experience.
Oh and here is a link to a flying flag....http://hastings.house.gov/media/gallery/flag.jpg
Hey guys,
From what I've seen from most of the posts is that the song is about supporting our troops and and basically being patriotic in general which is kind of what John was talking about in his first post. Personally I don't agree with most of the versus' in the song, but I do see that the general message is that when it comes down to it America supports its troops no matter what. I found a little comic strip that shows an older woman with a flag yelling at a kid to support the troops and I thought this had the same type of message. The kid asked isn't it enough to just support them in your head and prayers but the woman said no and that you need to scream it out loud and wear t-shirts and have bumper stickers that say it. This is what Toby Keith's song is all about, saying it out loud that he supports the troops and what's going on. The link to the comic is http://wigu.com/overcompensating/pictures/support.png
I thought this whole war-blog discussion with different types of people form different classes was a good experience in general. It's always good to see other people's points of view even if you don't necessarily agree with them.
-Peace & Love, Max
Hey Group,
When reading the second comments on the song it seemed like we just reiterated what we already thought about the song such as the pride in it and the misrepresentation of the U.S. Some of the new thoughts I noticed were Staci comparing the war in Afghanistan and Iraq and how John said sometimes it is necessary to send your message like a loose cannon. These were both good ideas. We all have different views toward the war and it was good to see those and the reasons behind them. I chose the song “U.S. Blues” by the Grateful Dead as the accompanying medium. It was written in the 1960s when people loved to serve in the war for their country and it shows extreme patriotism that was around by “waving that flag.” I enjoyed blogging with you all.
Link: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/usblues.html
McLean S.
I have now read about two or three comments from every person and we all seem very interested in the opinions of others on this song. What is interesting to me is how many people agreed with each other about supporting this song, as opposed to maybe one or two who don't. This shows me that maybe this class or even the school is somewhat more conservative than I thought. I did like the overall message of the song and can see how others might not, but I also feel as if it is very common for people to forget the negative factors of war and continue to support everything that we do. There are certaintly both possitive and maybe negative factors to this song and it is interesting that most people have looked for and found the possitive.
Epps-
I actually feel opposite of McLean, I expected more negative opinions of the song than there were. In any event it was nice to see some differing views of the song and the war in general. I agree with Max in that an aggresive attitude in support should not be imposed on people or by versus. Glad to see nobody was offended through this either haha I half expected that to happen too. Good luck the rest of the year guys. Take care.
- John Epps
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