Toby Keith

Eddie,

First of all, you and I go back several years. I love you like a brother. But that Toby Keith song is rancid. My blood boils every time I hear it. That song, sung so whole-heartedly, arose from a painfully obvious lack of education in the "American Way."

Toby Keith is an uncultivated American. He made a lot of money, that's true. And he wasn't painted like the Dixie Chicks for taking a stand, was he? No. He made money. They made enemies. I'm not saying like the Dixie Chicks, I'm saying it's a whole helluva lot easier to jump that economic bandwagon of blatant, blind, thick, patriotism. And he did just that.

"Now this nation that I love has fallen under attack
A mighty sucker punch came flying in from somewhere in the back"
Yes, what happened was planned and acted upon by the lowest form of human life. "Sucker punch," is the phrase that that didn't feel right the first time I heard it. Do you really think we could have stopped it? No, because we didn't stop it. We had security for a reason and it failed. Am I saying it's our fault? No, but it certainly wasn't something that would have been impossible to see coming. Bad on us, it wasn't a sucker punch. Although, it will go down in world history as one of the single most despicable events to have ever taken place.

"Soon as we can see clearly through our big black eye,
Man we lit up your world like the forth of July"
How excited do we want to get about killing the bad guys? Nice reference to our independence Day. (The 4th of July will now be known as "Kill Everyone In Sight Day.")

"Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list
And the statue of liberty started shaking her fists"
This is not what the Red, White, and Blue stand for. Not to me, Eddie. Hit lists? Assigning so-called Death Wishes?

and the worst line of all:
"Cuz we'll put a boot in your ass
It’s the American way"
This is not the image I want the US to have. This songembarrassess me most because of this line. I don't understand how anyone can play this song and not think, "What an asshole."

I don't mean to offend you, personally, Eddie. But the song cheeses me offevery timee I hear it. I probably haven't done a good job explaining why. Mostly it rides right along with thedisgustt I had for the sudden onslaught of US Flags all over the cars on the road, in the front yards of houses, on clothing...not that any of those are bad, not on an individual level anyway. But you KNOW as well as I do, that flags were MARKETED. MARKETED. Anything for a buck. And what's worse, is that it worked. "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue" is in the very same league as mercantile loyalty.

I'm not trying to play down patriotism as a bad thing. I love my country. I'm proud to serve in the Air Force. I'm proud of what I was able to do in OIF. And I'll stick up for the US, because, in general, this is the best place to live on the face of the planet. I'm also not saying that every line in that song is a bad line. But the way it was produced, and the context inwhich it's used, misrepresent what the United States of America is all about.

But then again, it's just one man's take, and when was permission given to me to disagree with the masses? Oh ya, July 4th, 1823.

Peace and Love,
Mungo

Song of the day: Well, uh, duh