Song-in-action Blog
Archive for November, 2009
Montgomery Gentry gives thanks to our troops
“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!” -Maya Angelou
This year I had the opportunity to work with a team of five other women on a project to raise awareness for our Nation’s wounded warriors. As of Nov. 23, 2009 over 36,000 soldiers were injured in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Many organizations and government agencies have online resources for wounded warriors including the Wounded Warrior Resource Center (Department of Defense) and the Wounded Warrior Project.
The last time I went to visit my family in South Carolina, I stopped en route at Cracker Barrel, my favorite roadside restaurant. I always like to shop there because I can find cool trinkets and they sell my favorite peanut brittle. What do you ask does Cracker Barrel have to do with wounded warriors? As I walked through the restaurant’s store they were playing a song by country music duo Montgomery Gentry. When the song ended, they made an announcement that Cracker Barrel had teamed with Montgomery Gentry to raise awareness and funds for the Wounded Warrior Project. It turned out that part of the proceeds from Montgomery Gentry’s album For Our Heroes sold in Cracker Barrel will go to the Wounded Warrior Project. Click here to buy a copy online.
Montgomery Gentry consists of Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry. The duo is well known for their philanthropic efforts with the T. J. Martell Foundation, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Camp Horsin’ Around, and Farm Aid. Their efforts to raise funds for the Wounded Warrior Project are part of Montgomery Gentry’s commitment to telling the stories of America’s heroes.
The main objective of the Wounded Warrior Project is to “provide tangible support for the severely wounded and help them on the road to healing, both physically and mentally.” One of their signature projects is the WWP Packs program that delivers backpacks containing care items (clothing, toiletries, calling card, CD player, etc.) to severely wounded warriors arriving at military trauma centers. For more information on the Wounded Warrior project follow them on Twitter or check out their website.
Montgomery Gentry’s commitment to supporting the troops also includes a collaboration with the USO and the Vault for the “The Uniform of Heroes: The Taste of Support” campaign. Since the DOD suspended the “Any Servicemember” mail program, the Vault & USO have come up with a campaign that allows people to send pre-addressed postcards to soldiers. These postcards are available at Vault displays across the nation, Vault fridge packs and MyCokeRewards.com. The campaign provides the postcards and consumers (like you) provide the postage, the messages, and the manpower to drop the cards in the mail.
“These messages will go a long way in bringing comfort and lifting the spirits of our troops, especially those who are a world away from home.” Neil Golson, VAULT Brand Manager, Coca-Cola North America.
On the Montgomery Gentry website, Troy is quoted, “We’re proud to continue the effort to support our U.S. troops, and it’s exciting to partner with VAULT on this important campaign once again. . .VAULT and the USO have created a great way to spread goodwill and offer our thanks to the brave men and women serving our country. We hope thousands of people will get involved again this year.”
As we approach Thanksgiving, supporting the Wounded Warriors Project and the Uniform of Heroes campaign provide us with the two ways to let the our troops know how much we appreciate them.
Katina
P.S. Remember “Freedom is Never Free” – Unknown
Stop the Video Madness called Russian Roulette & Video Phone
Lately my eyes have been burning and I realized that it is coming from tears caused by viewing two recent music videos. I love music videos, but these two really saddened me. I keep asking myself, is this what young girls are supposed to look up to when they watch music videos?
Fellow blogger and youth activist Yasmin Shiraz (http://www.yasminshiraz.net/) recently asked the question – “Rihanna: Where are your pants?” and then opened a discussion about the appropriateness of Rihanna’s new video Russian Roulette.
Rihanna, where are your pants?
If you haven’t seen Rihanna’s video – take a moment to view it now. It’s an oddly dark video with sexual and violent overtones.
Do you think this is appropriate? What is she trying to say? Here is the comment I left on Yasmin’s blog:
Russian Roulette? Seriously? It’s a game of chance played with a gun that has one bullet. As you play, you gamble that you won’t shoot yourself in the head and die. It’s a terrible, terrible, song idea and video concept for a person whose target audience is young adults. Even if she wasn’t just coming out of domestic violence situation, it would still be a terrible, terrible, idea. Stop the madness.
Then I caught Beyonce’s new video with Lady Gaga – Video Phone. What was B thinking? I can only rephrase Yasmin’s question – Why don’t B and Lady Gaga have on any pants? I am too traumatized to break this down properly, but something is terribly wrong when female singers feel that they have to sexualize themselves like this just to sell a record. What is that thing they are doing with the rifles? I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry – or do both. I mean really, why?
Beyonce ft. Lady GaGa Video Phone
I like Beyonce and am really trying not to hate. But all I can say is: “Hot mess. Hot mess. Hot mess.”
Ok. Now that I have got that off my chest, here’s the call to action.
If you are interested learning more about images of women in the media, you should check out these two organizations. The first is Women in Media and News, a media analysis, education and advocacy group. Founder and Executive Director Jennifer Pozner is on the forefront of analyzing women as subjects of media. Her current work is on reality television which bears similar traits to what we see in the music videos discussed above.
The second organization is Black Girls Rock, which I have blogged about before. They are specifically dedicated to counter the hypersexualized images of women in music videos and build the self esteem of young girls.
Please support these two organizations and Yasmin. Maybe, just maybe they can help stop the madness.
Music hitting my heart
“Music hittin’ your heart because I know you got soul” Public Enemy, Fight the Power
Lately I have been in an old school state of mind. My best friend from college convinced me to go see the Brand New Heavies last weekend at the Birchmere. I am so glad I went. It gave me the chance to fall in love all over again with the group’s ability to fill a room with sound and bring voice to everything from the ups and downs of love to the power of following your dreams.
I think my favorite song by Brand New Heavies is Brother Sister. The lyrics move me:
There’s no need to feel you’re on your own
Just let your intuition guide you through
Take one step toward what you believe
Don’t be afraid to make your move …
Don’t be scared go out there
Stand up
Be strong go out there
Hold on
To the real things that matter
‘Cause no one’s gonna hand’ em to you
On a silver platter
I left the concert thinking – “boy I need to listen to live music more often.” It inspires me. The right song can make you want to move mountains, save the world, and fight for causes that you believe in. That’s what this blog is really about – music serving as the inspiration or catalyst for individuals and communities to bring about social change.
When I think about social anthems that really were about shaking people up and pushing them towards action, I always come back to Public Enemy’s Fight the Power. Watch Here
The words are so . . . . well, powerful
Fight the Power
As the rhythm designed to bounce
What counts is that the rhymes
Designed to fill your mind
Now that you’ve realized the prides arrived
We got to pump the stuff to make us tough
From the heart
It’s a start, a work of art
To revolutionize make a change nothin’s strange
A couple of days ago, I received an email about tickets for an upcoming Public Enemy benefit concert to benefit a homeless shelter in DC. The group has been on my mind ever since (and in my ears, much love to DJ Dredd for putting PE in the mix at Bhangraween). For my readers that grew up during the height of Public Enemy, you remember how large the group’s presence was. Love them or hate them, the group had the energy and power to light things on fire with their music. I am really excited to see them in DC using their music to call attention to a problem that really needs the full force of America to solve it – youth homelessness.
So let me take a minute to plug the concert and the cause –
“Public Enemy’s Number One - While Public Enemy have made ground-breaking hip-hop since their start over 20 years ago, they’ve also done their fair share of raising awareness for political and social causes. In an effort to help fight youth homelessness, Public Enemy bring their bass-heavy, manic live show to D.C. this November. Those who saw them at this year’s Virgin Mobile FreeFest know that Chuck D, Flavor Flav and crew still dominate socially and sonically. Virgin Mobile Presents PUBLIC ENEMY To Benefit The Sasha Bruce House, a homeless youth shelter. @ G.W. Lisner Auditorium • Washington, D.C. November 18 7pm Doors”
So for $25 (plus all those fees) you can Purchase Tickets and be part of the PE family again while supporting a great cause. The Sasha Bruce Youthwork is a cornerstone of youth services to at risk children in DC. The Sasha Bruce House is the only open access shelter for youth in D.C. For more information on the Sasha Bruce House and other SB Youthwork programs see www.sashabruce.org.
Fight the Power People,
Katina
President Elect Obama w/ Sasha Bruce Youthwork Work Crew
