You! America Make Proud!
Monday, 9th April 2007 by James Turnbull
A farmer has written a giant message to the landing pilots of the nearby 549th Strategic Missile Squadron. The field says "You! America Make Proud!".
I'm not sure of the exact meaning of this cryptic message, I guess the most likely translation is "You nice folk make our country proud, cheers lads" but it could be more of a demand, such as "Oi! You there! Make the country proud or we'll be mightily upset!".
Either way, I'm sure the author's English teacher isn't very proud.
Thanks: Gearth Hacks
Ain’t it “You make america proud”? 🙂
Indeed, “You! Make America proud”.. Wasn’t hard to see… (James? English teacher ? Shame. :P)
Uh, I think you missed the joke guys.
Shouldn’t that be “You! Missed The Joke!”?
No, it’s You! The Missed Joke.
That farmer must’ve drunk the kool-aid.. .speaking as an American, there really is not a lot to be proud of these days. Only about a year and a 1/2 to go though.
Actually, there’s quite a bit to be proud of in America. If you’re unable to see that, then you’re just sad.
Give the guy a break. I dont know about his English teacher not being proud of his grammar but his penmanship* is first class. Very neat and tidy with the letters nicely spaced and legiable. *tractormanship?
I am also stuck with an image of one of Americas finest ploughing a multi million dollar jet into the ground as he is busy trying read (and make sense) of the message laid out below. “You!” “What me?” “America make proud!” “What does that mean ?- whoops! where has the runway gone?”
That the difference between Democrats and Republicans. During the 8 years we were stuck with Clinton, I don’t think there was ever one time I would have said I was no longer proud of our country. But go ahead keep bashing the US, you have that right. And make sure you get all your candidates to do the same, because that message will just lose you the election in 08′.
What does he need to learn English for?
He’s probably never going to go to England…
(With thanks to Homer J. Simpson)
Oi! Patrick, Ken, and Matt! No political discussions please.
I have to side with Ken here, even though I’m no Bush fan. On this website we should only be looking down on America in a literal sense, so quit the bashing.
Ha ha… “oi” is a funny word… I love British English!
Sorry to double post, but i just realized something: If you look immediately southwest of the exclamation mark, you see the face of Jesus. Go figure, that guy’s everywhere…
I think that the farmer’s English is okay. It just needs to be read like this: You (vertical line where the crops accidently got mowed over) Make America Proud!
I agree though… America isn’t what it use to be in the world… Nothing like being hated world wide and thought of as arrogant so and so’s… Guess I was born in the wrong generation…
oh yea… I can kind of see the face of Jesus their in the dirt… or at least some long bearded guy…
Nnnggg…resistance fading….can’t hold out…any longer…
In Soviet Russia, proud makes you!
Tim:
There’s no such thing as British English; it’s just English. Americans use American English, other English-speaking nations use International English.
I didn’t drop out of my linguistics degree (twice) for nothing!
This is a tough one. Britain used to be proud, and we are not so now, visibly at least. It goes against the grain, I suppose because being proud does seem to imply being better?
Or at least it seems to have comparative connotations. Can my daughter, or my dog make me proud without me knowing anything about other daughters or dogs or how they are supposed to behave?
I live it Italy, and Italians are proud, while at the same time realizing what a mess they are making of runnig one of the most beautiful countries in the world. I am lucky enough to work with hundereds of Americans each year, most of them are proud, most of them are openly critical of the mistakes their couintry, like all countries make. But we see a lot of closed minded Americans on the media, and probably a farmar carving yard high letters to cheer on fighter pilots confirms a lot of people’s opinions of the ‘average american’.
In any case, I agree that the tractorman-ship is excellent.
BTW I’m a different Ben from the comment above
I live in Bellevue Ne, right near Offut AFB, and know the gentleman who created the words in the field. He was my neighbor accross the street; One of the best neighbors a guy could have. He managed a Wal-Mart in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and every year he would take a week off from his job to inscribe a different message in the field, once the farmer who owned the land had completed his harvest (corn, by the way) He would plan the message out for weeks before actually going out in the field. The field is on the landing path for flights coming in to Offut.
Chris moved away from Bellevue about three years ago, and the message is no longer there.
A little trivia: President Bush has a photograph of one of his messages hanging in the Oval Office.
“”He managed a Wal-Mart “”
Like I said, the guy was/is probably a heavy Kool Aid drinker.
Mmmm…. Kool-Aid!
Matt! Stop hogging the Kool Aid! We are in deep do-do here, and you have had enough for three new recruits.
Why was the farmer using all caps? Was he shouting?
Cheers to the guy who wrote it.
People, it appears obvious to me that the farmer was in a “no room” dilema. He couldn’t write “America Proud” on the second line of the couplet because there is not enough space to write both of those words as large as he wanted them to be. He therefore solved his problem by putting the “You Make” on the left, and the “America Proud” on the right.
He’s not lanuguage challenged; he’s helping keep language alive.
That, my friends, is the logic he used. Impossible to know, really, but this is my angle.
He could have made a stronger statement using only 5 letters. NO WAR
Except for ending slavery, fascism, nazim and communism, war has NEVER solved anything.
Hey Brad, all of those things you listed still exist today 🙂
Americans may be dumm but to write at that scale you obvisouly have to read it down the across to get You make america proud.
people r so easily fooled
As weird as this may sound, I think the message was intentionally written that way. “YOU MAKE” would be the first words the pilots would see as they’re landing. “AMERICA PROUD” would be seen after. Just as words painted on the street would say “WAIT HERE” as the driver is approaching it, but it would say “HERE WAIT” if one were to read it line by line. That’s just my theory.