project description
For this project, we had to create an original piece of rhetoric about anything we would like to talk about in America. As long as the issue was important to us as young Americans, we were permitted to talk about it. The project itself is usually presented in the form of a TED talk or speech but the floor was open to any kind of possibility.
video and written poem
What does it mean for you to be the reliant generation?
We are the ones to distill the problems we inherited
The ones who resolve the failures of your “moderation”
While you sit back and watch, thinking you are so merited.
How cold must you be to justify extermination
yet you think yourselves the judges of society,
resting your wars on lies and manipulation --
the earth you’ve created does not match reality.
“weapons of mass destruction,” bombs in far places
no exit strategy for troops on the ground
ammo and humvees dead by the road, black faces
in Afghanistan and America, no sleeping sound.
Why do you argue about the world you hound
if you think god is on our side?
Your own country is a small sadistic town
where those in charge use religious lies.
God and money talk in terms of oil
we could care less for the Middle East
except BP and Halliburton need a foil
for all that black gold, that fiery beast
God is used to justify negating the lives
of people who are not white or male
“He” is used to assure your lies
as if you expect us to yell “All Hail.”
But you are the ones waiting for Rapture
and vow to leave behind our generation
unless we believe in fairy tale capture
by this strange god of your imagination.
What if this wondrous Earth was actually made
by that “all loving God” you sing about
how to answer that…..
my query is left with an answer of doubt.
…
Now addressing the lives of all the people
that you insist on ignoring
How do you think it makes them feel…
getting excluded by those under the steeple?
You pass religious rants as an act of lawyering
using the State to pass a religious deal
Why is it that those without a belief
are forced to endure a nation
that has adopted one purely for personal relief?
…
The issue of god is only one problem you gave us;
we are faced with the impending doom of a planet polluted
that we forget the things we toss into the deep blue
are the things that leave a planet muted.
There is not much you could say to keep the earth out of a hearse
with all this talk of war, god, and oil
you go about speaking as if your campaign is an endless free verse
without even realizing that your planet is well beyond soiled.
To sum up the rantings of a scornful teenager;
we see the world as a place of war and pollution
a land of astronomical intolerance
where each suggestion for change is decried as no solution.
You have left your children to crash
do you not love us? Or this Earth of our heart?
So sick of this — can’t you confess
that we’re done, we’re over, with your pile of trash.
We are the ones to distill the problems we inherited
The ones who resolve the failures of your “moderation”
While you sit back and watch, thinking you are so merited.
How cold must you be to justify extermination
yet you think yourselves the judges of society,
resting your wars on lies and manipulation --
the earth you’ve created does not match reality.
“weapons of mass destruction,” bombs in far places
no exit strategy for troops on the ground
ammo and humvees dead by the road, black faces
in Afghanistan and America, no sleeping sound.
Why do you argue about the world you hound
if you think god is on our side?
Your own country is a small sadistic town
where those in charge use religious lies.
God and money talk in terms of oil
we could care less for the Middle East
except BP and Halliburton need a foil
for all that black gold, that fiery beast
God is used to justify negating the lives
of people who are not white or male
“He” is used to assure your lies
as if you expect us to yell “All Hail.”
But you are the ones waiting for Rapture
and vow to leave behind our generation
unless we believe in fairy tale capture
by this strange god of your imagination.
What if this wondrous Earth was actually made
by that “all loving God” you sing about
how to answer that…..
my query is left with an answer of doubt.
…
Now addressing the lives of all the people
that you insist on ignoring
How do you think it makes them feel…
getting excluded by those under the steeple?
You pass religious rants as an act of lawyering
using the State to pass a religious deal
Why is it that those without a belief
are forced to endure a nation
that has adopted one purely for personal relief?
…
The issue of god is only one problem you gave us;
we are faced with the impending doom of a planet polluted
that we forget the things we toss into the deep blue
are the things that leave a planet muted.
There is not much you could say to keep the earth out of a hearse
with all this talk of war, god, and oil
you go about speaking as if your campaign is an endless free verse
without even realizing that your planet is well beyond soiled.
To sum up the rantings of a scornful teenager;
we see the world as a place of war and pollution
a land of astronomical intolerance
where each suggestion for change is decried as no solution.
You have left your children to crash
do you not love us? Or this Earth of our heart?
So sick of this — can’t you confess
that we’re done, we’re over, with your pile of trash.
REFLECTION
As stated in the project description, this project was a chance for us to take a look at American society and present our views on it in nearly an way possible. For months before the project was even launched, our class was studying all the different aspects of American continuity. This included all the events in Ferguson, MO, the "War on Terror" after 9/11, American economics, the Civil Rights Act, and other subjects in these fields. For the actual project, many of my peers decided to take a more standard approach and present their project in a TED talk structure. As you can see, I chose to take a different approach. Since I am greatly into Photoshop and graphic design, I decided to write a poem about the things I wanted to talk about and at the same time create an image in Photoshop that helps to display the viewpoint of my poem. I also decided to record the five hour process of creating the image and speed up the footage so that the audience members at the exhibition could hear my poem and also see the creation process of my poster.
My project incorporated the art of rhetoric by plying on the emotions of guilt to get the audience to realize that the "older" generations have set up this world and country so that younger generations such as mine, have to resolve all the issues that we had no part in creating. This form of rhetoric was meant to test the ideas of the audience and challenge what they believe in so that the point I was trying to make could get through to them without any other thoughts of denial getting in the way. I had hoped that the rhetoric in my project was strong enough that
My project incorporated the art of rhetoric by plying on the emotions of guilt to get the audience to realize that the "older" generations have set up this world and country so that younger generations such as mine, have to resolve all the issues that we had no part in creating. This form of rhetoric was meant to test the ideas of the audience and challenge what they believe in so that the point I was trying to make could get through to them without any other thoughts of denial getting in the way. I had hoped that the rhetoric in my project was strong enough that