Take Back the Night
Violence and hatred are the weapons of the weak
Hi all,
Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “Take Back the Night”, by John McCutcheon. If you’d like to hear the song before you read about it, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below.
🔰Note: today’s article is written at a level of TOEFL (PBT) 350, Pre-2, CEFR A2.
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(373 words)
How safe do you feel walking down the street at night?
If you are a woman, you might have a different response to the question as a man might, or maybe not. I feel pretty safe, but I live in a rural area in Japan. Even in a major city, I still feel fairly safe. In other countries, I am careful where I go and make sure I get home early.
The song for today is about the issue of safety on the streets. The level of safety for many people has changed over the years, or maybe it has just changed in some places.
John McCutcheon wrote this song in 2003. He begins by remembering how it used to be.
There was a time I do recall
When the streets of this town of mine
Belonged to one and all
But now the night seems dark and small
No one is safe, no way is clear
When lives are ruled by pain and fear
He calls on the people to do something to make it safe to walk the streets again.
Take back the night
Take back this town
Take the light of this new day
And tear the darkness down
Take back our power
Take back our rights
Take back our dreams, take back our lives
Take back the night
The songwriter says that we have a choice in how we react to situations, especially those that make us afraid. We can face the fear and change the situation, or we can let fear make us weak and ineffective.
There is a place in every heart
Where fear can make you stronger
Or can tear you right apart
This is the place where we must start
Mothers, fathers, daughters, sons
Together we will fear no one
McCutcheon encourages us to speak out, to say that being a bully just shows how weak you are. We must stand up, speak up, and never give up until we are safe.
This is the truth that we must speak
That violence and hatred are the weapons of the weak*
We will not waver from what we seek
We are the ones, we will not bow
The place is here, the time is now
Your challenge:
Safe is an adjective. Safety is a noun. Write two sentences in the comments, using the adjective and the noun forms.
For advanced learners: in this song, what do you think “the night” is being used for metaphorically?
Vocabulary
tear down 壊す
weak 弱い
ineffective 無力
bully いじめっ子
violence 暴力
hatred 憎悪
* that violence and hatred are the weapons of the weak 人は自分の弱さを隠すために暴力をふるう。
waver 揺らぐ
bow 屈する
I always feel safe here on my hill Louise, at least I do if I don't hear the telltale grunt of a wild boar!
I worry for the safety of my daughter though, living in a big city where she uses the metro late at night, I can never sleep if I know she's out anywhere - not until she sends me a text to say she's home. Thankfully I don't always know when she's out, I'd never sleep otherwise.
It is a great sadness to me that we must feel worry about such things though... no matter where, or who or when.
Louise, to me the standout phrase in this piece is the fantastic, "We are the ones," Indeed to this. Hope you're well this week? Cheers, -Thalia