"The Star-Spangled Banner" is a song nobody can sing, commemorating an event nobody cares about, in a war nobody remembers. America 2005 Jeep vehicles the Kansas City Royals the Oak Ridge Boys Florence Henderson, and the mighty Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They have begun a campaign to promote the song in schools, and have forged a diverse alliance to rally the nation to the cause, including First Lady Laura Bush, the honorary chairwoman Julie Love Templeton, Mrs. The project's organizers and supporters fear that the decline of music education is to blame. This gap between what the anthem could be and what it is has prompted the National Association for Music Education, a teachers' group, to create The National Anthem Project to try to reinvigorate "The Star-Spangled Banner." The enthusiasm of new Americans for the national anthem only underscores the indifference and ignorance of the rest of us. I don't know of any polls on the matter, but it seems safe to say that naturalized citizens are more likely than the native-born not only to know the song, but also to like it enough to want to keep singing to the last lines, rather than to start yelling "Woooooo!" through its closing couplet in their impatience for the home team to take the field. An immigrant's love of America naturally expresses itself in a heartfelt attachment to its symbols, "The Star-Spangled Banner" included. At events like these, the anthem rises to match the emotional heights of the moment. Naturalization ceremonies are an obvious exception. With a situation like that, it's hardly surprising that the song seems to have lost the ability to stir within many Americans feelings of patriotic grandeur or civic purpose.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |