"The More Things Change, the More they Stay the Same"

“The More Things Change, the More they Stay the Same”

Andrew Luzzi


Millenium, Y2K, Series of the Subway,
George Bush, Afghanistan, anthrax attacks

Taliban, 9/11, Earnhardt ascends to heaven
Barry Bonds, terrorists, the patriot act

No child left behind, terror on the airlines,
Mother Teresa, Osama Binladen

Birth of Wikipedia, Enron in the media
Soldiers in the Middle East, the Iraqi war begins

Chorus:
We didn’t start the fire
It just keeps burnin’ and the world keeps turnin’
We didn’t start the fire
But are we learnin’ as the world keeps turnin’?

Patriots, Armstrong, suicide and car bombs
Arafat, same sex marriage legalized

Tsunami in Indonesia, and Hurricane Katrina
Al-Qaeda, the war on terror on the rise

Mars Rover, Pope John Paul, Steroids in baseball
River dolphin, U2, and the birth of youtube

Somalia, Saddam Hussein, 300 million in the states
Castro, Beirut, Iran develops nukes

Chorus:
We didn’t start the fire
It just keeps burnin’ and the world keeps turnin’
We didn’t start the fire
But are we learnin’ as the world keeps turnin’?

Davinci Code, Pope Benedict, Israel leaves the Gaza Strip
Hillary Clinton, protests for peace

No Holocaust after all?, democrats in Nepal
War in Somalia, these problems never cease

Large Hadron Collider, the 7th Harry Potter
Virginia Tech massacre, Jack Kevorkian

Pelosi in the House of Reps, killings at Virginia Tech
Mandela, Iraq again, man this stuff just never ends

Chorus:
We didn’t start the fire
It just keeps burnin’ and the world keeps turnin’
We didn’t start the fire
But are we learnin’ as the world keeps turnin’?

Eliot Spitzer resigns, Gore wins the Nobel Prize
Cyclone in Myanmar, Wenchuan China ‘Quake

Stock Market Crash, AIG, Raid on YFZ
Plummeting Oil prices, Palin and Bill Gates

Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, the Capitol of Chad’s attacked
American consumers become hesitant

Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps surpasses Spitz,
2008 election, Obama becomes president

Chorus:
We didn’t start the fire
It just keeps burnin’ and the world keeps turnin’
We didn’t start the fire
But are we learnin’ as the world keeps turnin’?

Technology and society change
But despite progress we’ve made
All the same problems remain
Human nature is to blame

So throughought the past decade
One reoccuring theme pervades
And it appears the more things change
The more they stay the same

Emma'a Found Song

Pop Culture Take Over:
by Emma Hauer

Derek Jeter, youtube craze, Obama, Y2K,
Pop culture daze, Jonas Brothers, Slumdog Millionaire

War on Terror, Afghanistan, Harry Potter, Aaron Ralston,
Dave Matthew’s Band, Michael Jackson, Miley Cirus

Transformers, Twilight, Jack Johnson, Eat Prey Love,
Merkspages, 9/11, and Across the Universe

Guitar Hero, Swine Flu, Russia invades Georgia,
Lady Gaga, George W. Bush goodbye

We didn't start the fireIt was always burningSince the world's been turningWe didn't start the fireNo we didn't light itBut we tried to fight it

Saddam Hussein, Gardisil, Steroids, Anthrax,
Global Warming, Asian bomb test, Sarah Palin

Darfur, Britney Spears, Union expand, facebook,
The Genome Project, and Virginia Tech

Pluto, homeless, the invisible children, Dennis Tito,
The Notebook, Sustainable, Katrina

iPhone, internet, economy, Ray Jones Jr.
Princess Di, MESSENGER, trouble with SARS

We didn't start the fireIt was always burningSince the world's been turningWe didn't start the fireNo we didn't light itBut we tried to fight it

Bin Laden, Bill Clinton, Da Vinci Code, Rwanda,
Tom’s Shoes, tsunami, American Idol
Jamie Foxx, Brangelina, Napoleon Dynamite,
Ivy League, drug abuse, vegetarian craze

Obesity, O.J., Michael Phelps, gas prices,
Mini Coops, Smart Car, McCain is a no go

Ugg Boots, A.I.G., Chickadee and Mp3
Foreign affairs, The Hills, High School Musical phase

We didn't start the fireIt was always burningSince the world's been turningWe didn't start the fireNo we didn't light itBut we tried to fight it

Backstreet Boys, Myspace, Mosquito West Nile,
iPods, college, “Bring our troops home today”

Save the economy, The greenhouse gases crisis,
Juno, Borat, Dealership Bailout Plan

Go Green, Lance Armstrong, so many become too poor,
Heath Leger gone away, what else do I have to say

We didn't start the fireIt was always burningSince the world's been turningWe didn't start the fireNo we didn't light itBut we tried to fight it

Shark Attack, Everest, Project Runway steals the stage,
Earth day, IM, SATs, U2,
Hungry, Hurting, John Mayer, the new teen driving laws,
Man versus Wild saves young boy, Obama calls time of change

Glaciers melting, Souljaboy, Paris Hilton, Randy Smith,
Jon Stewart, One Tree Hill, Tina Fey, Weed, Pills, Dick Cheney,
Deadly shootings on the streets, China is capitalist,
Pop culture taking over, I can’t take it anymore

We didn't start the fireBut when we are goneWill it still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

Tia's Found Song

We Didn’t Start the Fire

Nine eleven, Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, Uganda,
World Trade Center, Pentagon, Berry Berenson

Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Operation Iraqi Freedom
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mohamed Atta

Catholic Priests upset moms, North Korea Might have bombs,
Sri Lanka, Daniel Pearl, and Swiss Join the UN

Ukraine, Chinas Plane, Bush's Search Campaign,
K(arzai) survives, Saddam Lies, Flights Cancelled due to bankrupt cries

We didn't start the fireIt was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fireNo we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Phnom Pehn, old man on the mountain,
Protesting arsonists, U2's forced to leave their trip

SARS, Cars, Ridgway's in bars,
Hussein found in a hole and Libya’s gonna blow

John Kerry, Ronald Regan, Islamics got a new series
United Nations and Japan, Hurricane Catrina

TMA, Messenger, Graniteville,
Pope John Paul, Freedom Tower,

CHORUS

George Bush, Time Bomb, Roper vs. Simmons
New Pope, Tung Chee Hwa, Massacre in High School

Chaos, Hand Grenade, California governor
Abortion, children of the stampede

Hazard Waste, Al Gore, Gradisil
Gaza Beach, Castro, Ukraine is a no go

HD, Blue-Ray, Wii and Play station 3
Mars orbiter, Alito, New President in Mexico

CHORUS

Global warming, polar bears, Al Gore, back again
Typhoon, Tsumani, and Radioactive Water

“Shot of love” Gaza Strip, Swine Flu, suicide
Still in debt, homeless men, Human Genome Project
Killer meds in the stores, North Korea under-bombs
Black and White separate Proms, I can’t take it anymore!

CHORUS

We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

The Freedom Rides

The freedom rides, part of the Civil Rights Movement, began in 1961. Civil rights activists called freedom riders rode on interstate buses into the segregated southern U.S. in order to test the Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia. The case had outlawed racial segregation in the restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals serving buses that crossed state lines. An African American law student was convicted of trespassing by being in a restaurant in a bus terminal which was “whites only”. The Freedom Ride, which consisted of African Americans and whites, left Washington DC on May 4th, 1961. On May 14th, the freedom riders split up into two groups to travel through Alabama. Both groups faced angry mobs who stoned the bus and slashed tires, and the riders were severely beaten. Despite the violence and resistance that they faced, the riders were determined to continue. On their next trip from Birmingham to Montgomery, they were again assaulted and bloodied when they arrived at their destination. In attempt to protect them, Kennedy called in the US marshals, and when they continued to Mississippi they encountered heavy police presence. The riders were arrested in Jackson and sentenced to the maximum-security Parchman Penitentiary for trespassing. The freedom riders eventually won when Kennedy got the Interstate Commerce Commission to ban segregation in interstate travel. The efforts of these activists bolstered the credibility of the American Civil Rights Movement.

Sources: "The Freedom Rides". PBS. June 1, 2009 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/05_riders.html>.

Cozzens, Lisa. "Freedom Rides". June 1, 2009 <http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/freeride.html>.

The Limits of Non-Violence

Non-violent protests are tactics that have been used for centuries to make a stand against the government. During the 1960’s the Civil Rights Movement began to take a radical change and became a national issue. Although there was a lot of violence in the movement, the non-violence spoke louder than guns and beatings. In 1962 the limits of non-violence tactics were tested. In Albany Georgia, organizers from the SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) arrived in 1961 to help African-Americans fight segregation without violence. After many non-violent protests such as school walk outs, sitting in at white restaurants and doing anything to desegregate the south, more than 500 had been put in jail. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was called down to help get them out and help fight segregation. After police investigations on the tactics of non-violence King and others were jailed as well. In July of 1962 the court orders a restraining order against the jailed protesters, when the SNCC and SCLC leave there is still segregation but the non-violent fight to end segregation continues. Non-violent protest was a new way in dealing with the segregation and changed the movement to become stronger and have more of an impact with a new tactic. Although some limits were reached, it only drove protestors more and the Civil Rights Movement took changed for the duration.

Project “C” in Birmingham

Birmingham, Alabama was known as the most segregated city in the United States in the 1960s. Every public facility was segregated including cabs, fitting rooms, and restrooms. A baseball league was discontinued due to the risk of playing against other integrated schools. Only 8 percent of the city’s African American students went to school with white students. Birmingham’s leaders did everything and anything they could to keep the blacks in line. Even the Ku Klux Klan tried to keep the blacks in line. In between the years of 1957 and 1963, Birmingham experienced 50 cross burnings and 18 bombings. With the terror and danger increasing, Martin Luther King Jr.’s concern increased as well.
King helped set up marches, boycotts and protests in order to gain attention to the horrific treatment blacks were receiving in Birmingham, Alabama. Each day people would protest and each day more and more people were arrested, including Martin Luther King Jr. himself. From jail he continued to promote the protests and marches. "I am in Birmingham because injustice is here," Martin Luther King Jr. wrote. "I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." With these letters, King was able to build confidence in the black community to continue fighting for equality.
Therefore, younger people began to join the protests.
On May 3rd, people were protesting near the 16th street church and where either trapped inside or outside and were soon being threatened. These threats turned into officers beating men, women and children with nightsticks, setting dogs loose on them and/or spraying them with water from a fire hose. People were being injured everywhere because they were protesting for a life with freedom and everyone saw. This type of reaction continued on for other protests. Publicity about Birmingham sky rocketed with all of the smaller protests, so this particular ended up being filmed. With the nation watching the horrific scene from their very living room, the change was already occurring. Blacks then gained their civil rights and integration was finally able to occur. It was one of the fastest integration acceptance rates ever. Within three months, whites and blacks were integrated in cabs, fitting rooms, and restrooms. Martin Luther King Jr. and every other person involved in the Project “C” helped set a new tone for the civil rights movement. The harsh truth shown on thousands of television screens that day was yet again another milestone in creating equal rights for everyone.

Sources: Freedom Now! May 16, 2003. Socailworker.org. May 30, 2009. http://socialistworker.org/2003-1/453/453_08_Birmingham.shtml
The Story of the Movement. 2008. Pbs.org. May 30, 2009. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/07_c.html

The March on Washington

On August 28th 1963, more than 200,000 individuals conglomerate peacefully on the National Mall to promote the civil rights movement. John Lewis had prepared a speech which included scathing remarks against the Kennedy administration, but was eventually persuaded by A. Philip Randolph (a key civil and labor rights leader) to lessen the harshness of the speech in order to prevent any potential violence. Lewis successfully spoke in front of the population, and delivered a toned- down version of the speech that originally possessed a malevolent rhetoric. At this event, Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” while standing before the watchful eye of the Lincoln Memorial. This speech was an outright success, but the march had eventual, unintended repercussions. Soon after, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church, killing 4 and injuring fifteen more. This bombing served to increase turmoil within the civil rights movement by hinting at a lean towards a violent uprising. Despite the retrospectively minimal negative outcome, The March on Washington was a resounding success, and served to demonstrate not only the power of unity, but also the support for the civil rights movement.

Source: "The March on Washington." Web.3 Jun 2009. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/08_washington.html>.