Holiday

"Holiday" is a single straight off of Green Day's wildly successful 2004 album, American Idiot. The entire album can be seen as a deconstruction and criticism of the modern age, and that can be seen in its 2009 spiritual sequel 21st Century Breakdown. "Holiday" specifically was written as a response to the Iraq war, and Bush's presidency in general. The lyrics juxtapose images of the comfortable American lifestyle with the horrors of the war.

Take the second stanza: "Hear the dogs howling out of key/To a hymn called 'Faith and Misery' (Hey!)/And bleed, the company lost the war today". Here, Green Day looks first at Iraq, and how in this time of war they can do nothing but scream and pray. Then it cuts to corporate America, and shows that they're more concerned about losing profits than they are about losing lives. "Bleed" also has a double meaning here, referring to both corporations losing money and literal people bleeding in the streets.

For the hook, Green Day parodies American politicians, using a persona of the Representative of California. "Sieg Heil to the president Gasman/ Bombs away is your punishment/ Pulverize the Eiffel towers/ Who criticize your government/ Bang bang goes the broken glass and/ Kill all the fags that don't agree/Trials by fire, setting fire/ Is not a way that's meant for me" These lines reference the scare tactics used by politicians to get government support for war. Terms like "Sieg Heil" and "Gasman" compare Bush to Hitler. Here, the motif of fire is used both to represent a struggle, as well as soldiers literally setting Iraq on fire.

"Holiday" is poetic because it uses analogies and imagery to criticize a massive and well-established system. It focuses on its use of language to express the frustration felt by millions of Americans during and after the war. The last line sums it up best: "this is our lives on holiday." Us Americans don't have to worry about our own destruction because our lives are so comfortable. Being able to communicate something like that in such a short line shows true mastery of language.

I Can't Breathe

Just this afternoon I stumbled upon the 'I can't breathe' video. I watched as Eric Garner went from arguing his side of the story with cops, who think that he is selling untaxed cigarettes. This could very well be. I was not there, I do not know the story. What I do know is that man died. What I do know is that the man was killed in July and it took until just last week for people to notice what was going on. With the events of Ferguson, of course other stories in the news are not as noticeable, but the stories look to be the same from a viewers perspective. Two innocent black men killed by a member of the police force.

Every part of me hopes and wishes that the crimes committed were anything but hate crimes, but sadly that is just the way works. Numerous times in the past months I've heard comments like "The police only want to protect themselves.." or "The police serve as a threat more than protection". Both of these comments made me think about those in the police force that I know. I began to label those I know with the hurtful adjectives I hear from others. This was a stupid experiment, and I wanted to answer those 'hated' on the police forces.

Generalization, not only a fallacy, but a problem that our world has. Last year in psychology I learned that a generalization is after having an experience, similar experiences make you act or respond in the same way and you begin to feel the same even though the situations are different.

To give a few examples of the ways that the situation has been appropriately handled, alternatively from riots or violent protests or dehumanizing all police forces or even saying anything at all, a silent stand was taken by basketball teams across the US.

From Washington D.C. to Los Angeles, 'I can't breathe' t-shirts were worn by teams in a silent protest. I believe that this is freedom, this protest is civil and more people will stop and listen. On the other hand, with the riots in East St. Louis, scaring the world with burning down the city is not the way to get attention neither order nor freedom. 

Racial Discrimination is Still Alive and Well

When many of us, including myself at times, think of racial discrimination, we tend to think back to the Civil Rights movement when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. We like to think of the Civil Rights Movement of 1964 when racial discrimination was “outlawed” (whatever that means). Many people look at this momentous occasion and view it as a major achievement for colored people. Although I will not disagree with the previous statement, the fact is simply that the different forms of discrimination (social, economic, institutional, etc.) are all psychological issues, and therefore, cannot be easily resolved by a mere piece of legislation. Several recent events that have occurred in the United States over the last few years have led me to this conclusion.

The most recent event that most of us have at least heard about are the events that are still occurring in Ferguson, MO. To sum it up for those who have not heard, recently, a young black teeneger named Michael Brown was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a local law enforcement officer. The significance of this event is that Brown was unarmed at the time of the shooting and many are questioning Wilson’s rationale behind shooting the young man. The event has sparked riots, protest, and looting throughout the local area and many are calling for justice in the situation. To be fair, I have no idea if Wilson was actually using selective profiling and shot Brown simply because he was African-American. Maybe there was justification for shooting Brown, however, even the fact that a large portion of the community believes that Wilson should be charged as a criminal shows that racial discrimination is still quite visible in the world today.

In addition to the events that occurred in Ferguson, MO, there was another incident that occurred a little over two years ago that most have heard of by now. The case of Trayvon Martin is still very much controversial today, mainly due to the outcome of the case itself. On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in the gated community that Martin was living in at the time. Like Brown, Martin was unarmed. The details in this case are a little more well known due to the amount of time that has passed since the incident. George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges because of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, however many believe this was the right decision as it does follow the passed legislation.

It’s obvious that the two incidents shared many different aspects, which makes it easier to see that racial discrimination could have played a factor in the outcomes of the events. Clearly, racial discrimination has not been eradicated by the Civil Rights Movement or even by time, it just exists in different and generally more subtle forms.

War Radicals

Last week during class we watched a clip from a documentary on protesters of the Vietnam War. The campaign against the war started out small but really gained national momentum in 1965.


While most of the protestors were young and about the same as most of the men going to war, the documentary showed the young recruits ignoring the demonstrators and some even laughing in their faces. One guy remarked how it was funny that they were there objecting the war. He thought that at least by going to war the men were doing something and not just sitting around at home avoiding combat. 


As a war objector myself, I disagree with what that soldier said about the protestors not doing anything while at home. As the documentary showed, protesting took guts, as they were often up against armed policemen. A lot of the men going to war were only going because they were drafted, while demonstrators were radically defying societal norms and the majority of the population. War supporters sometimes went far enough to call them un-American. But isn't freedom of speech/expression something America stands for?


The most popular and acclaimed anti-Vietnam war protest was in 1967 at the Lincoln Memorial, which continued into the night at the Pentagon (with between 30,000-100,000 people showing up). There were viscous confrontations with soldiers and U.S marshals, resulting in over 100 arrests. This event was later named "The Armies of the Night" by author Norman Mailer. I think people should stop looking at these protesters in such a negative light and instead look at them as revolutionists. Rather than blindly going along with all the arbitrary drafting and recruitments at the time, they took a firm stand for what they believed in. Though what they were doing can be seen as disrespectful, everyone has a right to stand for what they believe in, no matter how radical and reformist. I think [peaceful] protesting will always be better than killing in a war, no matter what government officials say were doing it for.