My elementary school days
were in Detroit Michigan during the 1960s.
Those formative years
introduced me to much cultural diversity which has enlightened and informed my worldview.
While in Detroit, my next-
door neighbor was a Muslim kid from Egypt. We had much verbal exchange of religious
ideas. A girl at school was from Saudi Arabia. Again, I learned much about
Islam. We had kids from South America. We had kids from Puerto Rico. Detroit
was home to many languages, religions, art and musical tastes.
Because I value multiculturalism very much,
I become bewildered at a movement to demand that the National Anthem or “Star
Spangled Banner” be sequestered to some particular or standard manner of
performance to exclude any variation which would be natural to the singer.
The song lyric and melody (like America
itself) are of sufficient strength to maintain integrity while also
accommodating various styles of performance.
In 1968, when Jose Feliciano sang the
national anthem to open a World Series game, many people were angry at how he
sang it. I felt that it gave the song a freshness which helped the words
actually have more meaning and definition.
I said to classmates and
teachers “He’s a citizen, isn’t he?” I figure a citizen should have liberty to
interpret the national anthem as it moves them.
I am hoping that whoever
may sing the national anthem at the Superbowl this Sunday will sing it according
to their fullest authenticity and personal integrity.
If you want to hear Jose
Feliciano’s interpretation of the song from 1968, the Youtube video link is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQkY2UFBUb4
By the way, the “Star Spangled
Banner is much more that just that one verse we sing at sports events.
Perhaps if we want to be
truly respectful, we should sing all four:
O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last
gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the
perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly
streaming?
And the Rockets' red glare, the Bombs bursting in
air,
Gave proof through the night that our Flag was
still there;
O! say does that star-spangled
Banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the
home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the
deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence
reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering
steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half
discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first
beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream,
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O!
long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the
home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps'
pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave,
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the
grave,
And the star-spangled banner in
triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the
home of the brave.
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation,
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n
rescued land,
Praise the Power that hath made and preserv'd us
a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto—"In God is our Trust;"
And the star-spangled Banner in
triumph shall wave,
O'er the land of the free and the
home of the brave.
