P!nk - Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr. President, come take a walk with me
(Take a walk with me)
Let's pretend we're just two people and you're not better than me
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?
What do you feel when you look in the mirror? Are you proud?

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye? And tell me why?

Dear Mr.President, were you a lonely boy?
(Were you a lonely boy?)
Are 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
(We're not blind)
They're all sitting in your cells while you pave the road to hell

What kind of father would take his own daughter's 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

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye?

Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away

Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you 'bout hard work, hard work, hard work
You don't know nothin' 'bout hard work, hard work, hard work

How do you sleep at night?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Dear Mr. President, you'd never take a walk with me, would you?

1. Summary
This is a song by P!nk featuring the Indigo Girls, they released this song in december 2006. Pink said that the song is an open letter to the then President of the United States, George Bush. Also she says that this song is one of the most important songs she has ever written. She also said it would never be released as a single in the United States because it was too important to be seen as a publicity stunt.

With this song she critices George Bush. It starts for example in the first stanza she says: Let's pretend we're just two people and you're not better than me, so she states that Bush thinks his status makes him a better person and more important than other people.
In the next stanza she asks to Bush: What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?, I think she wants to let him know how he has let people down, did nothing to homelessness, does he feel guilty when he looks in the mirror? In the refrain she asks: How do you walk with your head held high? She wonders probably how he can be so proud on the United States while there are so many problems.
I think in the sixth stanza P!nk wants to show how he thinks about abortion and gays. Would he also be against gays if his own daughters were gay?
In the seventh stanza she probably wants to say that most people in the US are working so hard for some money, while he’s doing nothing to national problems and gets paid a lot.
She ends with: Dear Mr. President, you'd never take a walk with me, would you? He probably never wants to take a walk with P!nk, because all the things P!nk said made him open his eyes.

2. Why did you chose this text?
Well, I’ve chosen for a song lyric, because it’s something different than a news article or a recipe. A song lyric has mostly a message. I’ve heard this song a lot so I was very interested to the message of these lyrics, why P!nk wrote this song, etc.

3. Typical examples of style and vocabulary
Rhyme is used in this song lyric, just a few examples: cry-goodbye, high-why, away-gay, etc. She also uses repetition, for example: take a walk with me, were you a lonely boy, we’re not blind, let me tell you ‘bout hard work.

4. Type of text
This is a song lyric written by P!nk, a song lyric belongs to poetic communication.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oegoI80t6WE&feature=related