By Sara Kay
Anybody who listens to music knows that song writers like to write about random occurrences, whether they are truth or fiction. But I’m pretty sure musical artists aren’t writing letters to President Bush asking him why life is so hard for them, and why is it that they have babies on the way and he isn’t doing anything about it?!
Upon listening to Pink’s new song “Dear Mr. President” it would be impossible to believe that Pink is an A-List celebrity living a fabulous life. According to Pink, she is crying and is very affected by the No Child Left behind Act. Oh, and she’s getting paid minimum wage and has a baby on the way. Did anyone else know that? Yeah, I didn’t either. It could be because it isn’t true. Pink, you don’t exactly have a hard life, although I’m sure writing the song “Get the Party Started” was a really difficult time. Oh, and didn’t you grow up in one of the richest towns in Philadelphia? Damn, that life sounds tougher than I thought.
“Dear Mr. President, were 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.”
Is President Bush’s childhood really that relevant to his presidency? I’ll go on. We’re not dumb and we’re not blind; that much is true, Pink. Brilliant observation, however, I don’t see how a bill passed in order to ensure a more efficient education is something to feel betrayed about. “They’re all sitting in your cells, while you pave the road to hell.” All right, so now all those kids who were apparently left behind are in jail? Since when is getting an “F” on a test a ticket to the “big house”? And as far as paving the road to hell, last time I checked, Bush looked more like a confused puppy, not Satan.
This next verse is really one of my favorites. “What kind of father would take his own daughters 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.”
Now, I’m not a genius, but I do get a chance to read the paper, which I’m sure is a stretch for Pink, who probably has someone read the paper for her. And I’m pretty sure that Bush didn’t take his daughters’ rights away; in fact the Bush daughters embarrassed themselves and their family by being raging alcoholics, and always managing to make front pages with their antics. I can’t imagine that Pink hasn’t touched the white powder seeing that she is a rock star herself. Maybe she should stop being a hypocrite.
As I listened to the song, I got to a certain part where I began to pull my car to the side of thee road, because I was yelling obscenities. “Let me tell you ’bout hard work, minimum wage and a baby on the way. / Let me tell you ’bout hard work, rebuilding your house after the bombs took it away. / Let me tell you ’bout hard work, building a bed out of a cardboard box. / You don’t know nothing ’bout hard work.”
I wasn’t aware that you were making minimum wage. Is minimum wage really up in the thousands of dollars per hour range? Wow, maybe I should drop out of school and do what it is that you do! What is it that you do? Oh that’s right; you sit around in your million dollar mansion and complain about national problems that don’t affect you. Pink had to rebuild her house after the bombs took it away. Was anyone aware? Was anyone also aware that there were bombs blowing away people’s houses in the U.S.? Pink can’t possibly think that terrorist attacks on this country were controlled by the president. That would be ignorant and generally uneducated. But I guess since Pink is so greatly affected by the No Child Left Behind Act, she’s not very educated. And unless “cardboard box” is code for a king-size bed in a mansion, I don’t see why Pink would be complaining. Find me a picture of Pink sleeping in a cardboard box on a street, and I’ll take back every word. Until then, I guess her mansion will have to do.
I’m not sure if it’s the act of writing the song and thinking it would have an impact or if it’s the lyrics themselves that is more frustrating. Voters in the U.S. have more than a right to not be happy with the way their president is running the country. However, seeing that a vast majority of the voters in this country are of the working class, they are the voters who get first priority in being critical. People like Pink (celebrities who are making millions of dollars a day) don’t have that right. Pink isn’t working in an office building five days a week and being directly affected by unemployment and health insurance. Pink isn’t sitting in her single-family home flipping through her bills, hoping she can pay off her electricity and cable bills. And it’s more than obvious that Pink isn’t a parent trying to get her children a proper education. In her biography she mentions that she knows what its like to raise children. “I raised a daughter once,” she said. “My ex-boyfriend had a three year old when I met him and I raised her till she was nine.” All right, so you spent six years with a child that wasn’t yours and probably had nothing to do with her education, aside from possibly driving her to and from school.
I understand that President Bush doesn’t have many fans these days. As a voter in this country who grew up in a middle class home with middle class issues, I am more than aware of the way this country is being run and how certain things are affecting my present as well as my future. Rock stars sitting in million dollar mansions with million dollar cars don’t know that. Pink isn’t struggling. Pink isn’t a hard worker, unless posing for the paparazzi is considered hard work these days. And Pink has no right to pretend she can relate to people who are living this life that she describes vividly in her song. I can’t even imagine how someone who is getting paid minimum wage reacts when she hears Pink is trying to pretend she knows how she is feeling.
I really need to stop listening to the radio when I’m driving.
Sara Kay is a sophomore print journalism major. You may e-mail her at [email protected].