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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNational Anthem before a 5K today
I've done over 20 of the Cambridge Classic 5K series, spring/summer/fall/winter, and today was the first time this happened. A live person singing the anthem like we're at a baseball game or something.
I'm used to it in arenas (although I don't really see the necessary connection between sports and flag-waving if we're not at the Olympics.) But to have 2000 people lined up waiting for GO and suddenly have to take off caps and hear a sincere young woman draw out this song, was surreal.
Maybe a change of management? I'm patriotic and I love my country as much as a sane person can at this time. But maybe not enough?
Mariana
(14,847 posts)And, some people are just bound and determined to pressure everyone into participating in their flag-worshiping fetish, whenever and wherever they have the power to do so. Such people decided to do this to the participants and spectators of your race.
I belong to a club that has nothing to do with politics or nationalism or anything like that, and there is a group of members who want us to open every meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and have a flag present. So far they've pretty much been ignored, but they just will not stop going on about it. I remains to be seen if they'll succeed - the members may eventually go along with what they want just to shut them up.
Croney
(4,646 posts)Then I felt unpatriotic. But I got over it.
stopbush
(24,375 posts)and is near impossible for the average person to sing. Most sound like Rosanne Barr.
The only people who can really do justice to the piece are opera singers like Robert Merrill at the Yankees games. And even then, its about a battle, not the country.
America the Beautiful would make a much better national anthem, even with the hackneyed god shed his grace on thee mumbo jumbo.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)But, for sheer get your mojo up there is nothing quite like the National Anthem of the Soviet Union/Russian Federation to send goose bumps up your spine !!!! The words have changed over time, and even for a period, there were no words. The lyrics for the Russian Federation are different from any of the others, with, as far as I k now, no reference to Lenin and all that crap....
But then. I am a musician, and have always felt a strong connection to Russian culture in general, music in particular...
Croney
(4,646 posts)pangaia
(24,324 posts)Croney
(4,646 posts)Lib 4 Life
(97 posts)SeattleVet
(5,468 posts)much lighter, not as ponderous and hymn-like.
Wingnuts heads would explode if this version were to be performed instead of the 'hymn' that it has morphed into.
(On edit: I'm old enough to remember the national outrage and debate after Jose Feliciano performed the song at the World Series in 1968)
Huge controversy, much time and talk was wasted on this.
Judi Lynn
(160,211 posts)I have been intentionally rude during these exercises in patriotic stupidity. I do not put my hand over my heart or stop whatever Im doing. Im over this empty headed and DANGEROUS jingoism.
Croney
(4,646 posts)Dagstead Bumwood
(3,524 posts)I take off my cap, my hands stay at my side and I don't make a sound. If the person does a decent job, I might clap for a few seconds. It doesn't mean anything to me (especially during the past almost three years), and I only follow along not to draw attention to myself, lest I be confronted by some jingoistic mouth-breather who thinks I'm dissin' 'Murica.
sir pball
(4,726 posts)Over 25 years of racing, from the New York City Marathon to the Litchfield Hills Road Race, there's always been a live rendition of the anthem as one of the final events before the gun. I've never given it much thought either way, to be honest.
Croney
(4,646 posts)obamanut2012
(25,905 posts)Road or trail, 5ks to ultras, in many states.
I think it is a tad ridiculous, but I am always mentally getting ready and getting my nerves under control, so ignore all of it.
Buckeyeblue
(5,491 posts)I agree that it's not necessary for sporting events. We don't play the anthem before work every morning. At least not yet.
Croney
(4,646 posts)Buckeyeblue
(5,491 posts)GoneOffShore
(17,308 posts)Croney
(4,646 posts)GoneOffShore
(17,308 posts)18 years ago we were visited by a French teenager. One of her comments was: Why so many flags? Don't Americans know who they are and where they are living?
albacore
(2,386 posts)You shoulda had ta sign a loyalty oath first!
(Catch 22)
Croney
(4,646 posts)TidalWave46
(2,061 posts)Play the anthem beforehand. Most of the time its a recording with no vocals. Sometimes there will be a local person who sings it.
Croney
(4,646 posts)It just felt out of place.
triron
(21,914 posts)WTF! Where do you live?
Croney
(4,646 posts)of Cambridge. Home of Harvard and MIT and Elizabeth Warren. This was a very diverse crowd, too; students from all over the world I'm sure (plus old local people like me). Really no need to point out what country we were in.
I hope they don't make a habit of it.
sir pball
(4,726 posts)Least they did last time I ran it, probably ten years ago
pintobean
(18,101 posts)to be bitching about someone singing our national anthem? The country belongs to all of us, regardless of who is in power.
Croney
(4,646 posts)as appropriate as other places. We all have opinions regarding which places those are. I don't think there are any right or wrong answers.
MadDAsHell
(2,067 posts)It's our freaking national anthem.
Now are there places where it's maybe unneeded? Maybe.
Croney
(4,646 posts)GoneOffShore
(17,308 posts)Military funerals, inauguration of presidents, national holidays, international sporting events. Everywhere else it's just nationalistic wanking.
pintobean
(18,101 posts)doc03
(35,143 posts)having to stand up for Lee Greenwoods crap.
Croney
(4,646 posts)GoneOffShore
(17,308 posts)I'll barely stand for the anthem anymore. Stopped saying 'The Pledge' years ago.
I'm a bit of a hypocrite though, because I do sing 'La Marseillaise' when needed. Don't get many chances though. The French only play it on the occasions I mentioned above.
Doc_Technical
(3,502 posts)A Major League baseball park would play "God Bless America"
during the seventh inning stretch and the crowd was expected
to stand (if they weren't already) and people who didn't stand were
harassed by people who were standing and singing.
Allegedly, one guy decided to duck into the restroom after the third out
was denied entrance to the restroom by a park employee who
said that the restroom was closed while the song is being played.
Jingoism is not patriotism.
Croney
(4,646 posts)Also sounds illegal.