David Breland is the entertainment editor at The Reflector. He can be contacted at [email protected].“Your flag decal won’t get you into heaven anymore| It’s already overcrowded from your dirty little wars| Now, Jesus he don’t like killing, no matter what the reason for| And your flag decal won’t get you into heaven anymore…”
That was the lyrics to John Prine’s song “Flag Decal.” As I was sitting in a concert hall this weekend listening to Mr. Prine and his then-protest song of the Vietnam War I realized that it still is very pertinent in this day and time. I also realized another thing. Where are the other protest songs?
Evidently, we are at war, or as I heard General Peter Casey put it, “the military is at war-the nation is at the mall.” Oddly enough, the best selling album right now, according to Billboard, is the soundtrack to “High School Musical 2.”
What is the deal here? I want to hear some dissent, a little disagreement-anything.
Instead, we are relegated to feel-good patriotic songs or nothing. However, the White Stripes’ song “Icky Thump,” had a few lines of dissent, but it was more about the immigration issue than the war.
What I’m wondering is why our generation doesn’t have a few Bob Dylans and Joan Baezes?
Seems to me that no one really cares that much. Sure, when the topic of the war comes up in bar conversation, usually a somewhat more inebriated participant in the conversation tells at length that if there were a draft he would go “in a heart beat.”
Hell, I think pretty much anyone would, if given the choice of picking what you want to do in a war or given a rifle, helmet and a swift kick in the direction of the frontline. Pretty damn easy decision if you ask me. This brings me to the argument I’ve been making since I started writing opinion-choose a side.
No one wants to pick a side it seems like.
I’m saying is this is a time in our country when we need public dialogue more than anything.
When former President Clinton was on the hot seat for his errant behavior with a certain intern, everyone and their brother had something to say about that, and all that was just over a little lovin’.
The overriding theme in all this is that our collective conscience forgets really quickly. If it’s not plastered all over television news we, as a whole, don’t really care. Apathy is our watchword, political correctness our motto, so why in the hell do I really care what goes on?
As long as I can buy a new iPod, get out of school and get a high paying job to buy more stuff and live happily ever after why should I care?
After all, what I think doesn’t matter-so is the reasoning of our collective conscience.
If record companies thought they could make a buck off of protest songs, you better bet your sweet little peace medallion that the airwaves would be cluttered with as many mental pictures of white doves and olive branches as you could imagine.
But, alas, that is not true because we are truly living in a gilded age. As long as “Grey’s Anatomy” and “American Idol” are on the tube, life is good; we’re happy living our high gloss, prepackaged, freeze dried, as seen on TV, accept no substitutes, genuine imitation, baseball, grandma and apple pie American dream.
Meanwhile, the U.S. death toll is a quick blurb on TV news, placed between the latest celebrity gossip and how big oil is really working toward a solution to our petroleum dependence.
Yeah, right.
We have truly dropped out, turned on and tuned in, albeit to mid-rate sitcoms and sans music MTV.
We need a hero, or at least somebody that will make a decent song instead of the crap that’s on the radio now.