American Song...Bad?

The thing that makes some songs so hard to acknowledge as absolutely horrible is when they occassionally make a decent point or two. Even beyond that, Toby Keith's song, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," sings of things that strike at home. What makes this song horrible is the way in which Americans are portrayed.

This could get out of hand, but I'll try to manage. Of course this song is dealing with the 9/11 attacks and the war on terrorism, these are things that have to be accepted. What is so ignorant is that while these are obvious atrocities, America does not have to respond to these ordeals by making fools out of ourselves. Granted, America could be the most powerful nation on the planet but that does not give us as Americans any right to be singing of the flag as a symbol of "putting a boot up your ass...the American way".

Rather, what is horrible about this song is that it tears down the image of the flag. No longer is the flag flying as a symbol of hope in the midst of oppression, instead the flag stands for American ignorance. By singing this song, Toby Keith has removed the flag from a position of hope and instead uses it as a means to elicit feelings from people. Not that is a bad thing at all. However, one look at some discussion about this song reveals many horrible things. As found on SongMeanings.com there are people who are viewing the flag as a reason to hate people that live a whole world away, whom they do not know and will never know personally and yet they choose to group these foreign people as "militant chinks and camel f'ers". Clearly turning an image such as the flag into a catalyst for these reactions was never the intention of Betsy Ross. It is truly horrible to see America degraded in this manner and unfortunately this situation will not be cleared up for a long time with the immense ignorance that surrounds this subject.