Panem and Pink's Mr President - a comparison

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

Beginning her song to former president Bush with those words, Pink describes, in my opinion, exactly how Katniss feels inside about President Snow. I think we all know what the pink haired woman wanted to say with her song, criticizing the American government in a way nobody would expect but reaching all different kinds of people. So although she would never admit it, ‘the girl on fire’ would like to have some of her personal questions and thoughts to be answered, like Pink, open and above board and talk about the social injustice between the Districts and mainly among the Districts and the Capitol. Having her whole life lived in District 12, Katniss want’s to talk about why the Capitol’s not helping the Districts to get essential things like food and water though they work hard to supply them materials to advance their technical evolution and to produce their products. She want’s to talk to him on an equal level, where every opinion counts the same instead of making anybody better than another.

“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 can someone ignore what he or she is confronted with all day, what the people in the dirstricts have to face each and every day? How can President Snow look the other way when people are dying of hunger or violence? Does he have a family and is glad that they were born in the Capitol and are save from being picked at the reaping? Does he think of the District people when he goes to sleep and does he feel sorry for them and their lifes? What does he think when he looks in the mirror? Is he proud? Proud of being the President of Panem and doing his job by bleeding the residents of the districts white and using the lifes of kids for entertainment?

“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?”

Katniss can’t understand how somebody can ignore what is going on in the Districts, the fear of the people. The fear of having no food, no job, being punished for a little something. The opression of the people who just want to have a better life. How can he decide on a life that’s not his, a life of a kid who is reaped for the Hunger Games and has “no chance to say goodbye” to his mother or his family when it is dying in the arena? For her it is incomprehensible how somebody who is in charge of so much injustice can present himself in the way President Snow does.

“How can you say
"No child is left behind?"
We're not dumb and we're not blind
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pave the road to hell”

Maybe Katniss thinks that President Snow is fooling the Capitol by telling them that he’s doing his very best for the people in the districts. But the biggest discrepancy in this lie would be the Games, because if the President would do the best for the people and mainly the kids he would end the Games forever instead of exhibit them in the arena and let them fight until death. The people in the districts have already understood what the Capitol is doing with and to them, but they can’t do anything against it. They know that the government is punishing everybody who knows to much so they remain silent. And while they don’t even try to do anything the Capitol uses his power to make the Games even more unhuman for the tributes and the district people and like this more entertaining for the audience.

“Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Rebuilding your houses 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! 
You don't know nothing 'bout hard work!”

Showing him the daily work and life in the districts and bringing this home to him Katniss want’s President Snow to end up the cruelty he’s exerting on the people. Being born in the Capitol, Snow does not know how hard it is to work for money, food, water. He doesn’t know anything about working in cole mines, on the field, upon trees or in factories the whole day. His life is about planning the next Hunger Games, deciding on who he will sponsor and partying in the Capitol. He’s having fun while other people are maxing out by their work. How can they overlook something so clearly: the discrepancy between the people in the Capitol and the ones in the districts.

To sum up, Pinks song and Katniss’ life in Panem have very much in common. They are both about injustice in a country and a government who ignores the cruelties which are executed on the peoples backs. Like Pinks Song was banned in the USA, Katniss’ opinion would be punished in Panem if she would enunciate it. But because of this fact ‘Dear Mr. President’ is one of my favourite songs: Somebody stood up for his opinion, accepting that he/she might be punished for his/her behavior, speaking out loud what so many think but nobody dares to do.

I would like to hear what your thoughts about the song and his relation to Panem and Katniss’ life in the District are, feel free to comment.

http://youtu.be/w0t1YKpJKvE

"Dear Mr. President, you'd never take a walk with me, would you?"