I recently heard this on NPR and I found myself moved by both the story and song. Therefore, you can only imagine my surprise upon hearing that many were outraged by Rene Marie’s rendition of The Star Spangled Banner.
Outrage? Seriously?
I guess I just don’t get it…at all.
What in this is outrage worthy?
I ask you, what is there to be outraged over in the words she so eloquently sang?
I am proud to be an American, and extremely proud of the ability that we all have in our freedom of speech that our Constitution upholds for us!
I will leave you with the youtube video of Ms. Marie singing along with the annual tradition that NPR has of reading the Declaration of Independence.
Have a safe and blessed fourth!
Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
Kat you and I are pretty much on a similar page, but with this, I’m going to have to disagree.
When someone is asked to sing the National Anthem, they should sing the National Anthem. Her song, as great as it is uses the music of the National Anthem and its powerful and she has the liberty to create her work. But it is expected at invocations of events that we expect the Star Spangled Banner, not her song.
Shame on the organizers for not clarifying it, getting it in a contract.
The national anthem is a patriotic moment, where we are reminded of our past battles and our country’s resolve to always come out on top. I fully support her freedom of speech. The words are phenomenal and very well could be a 4th verse of the song, but her version isn’t sold as the national anthem. There are times where your message is out of place.
Shame on her for picking the wrong time to get her message across.
But at the end of the day, this was a minor event and pails in comparison to the embarrassment that was Rosanne Barr’s butchering of the song. There shouldn’t be any outrage.
The wise thing would to have sang her verse, then follow it up with the main verse. She would have been hailed a hero.
Being a true Libra, I can see both sides of this argument.
But the fact that we can have a healthy agree-to-disagree about such a thing in this country without fear of retribution speaks for itself.
Let freedom ring
I don’t know. She was supposed to sing the national anthem, which was not what she sang. I like her version, but I don’t think she should have presented it as the national anthem.
I too am proud to be an American, i am proud of our freedom of speech, of our freedom to make choices that we feel are correct, of our freedom to rise, of our freedom to fall … and of our freedom to be outraged when we do not agree with another’s choice.
I love that she so beautifully sings “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” but I dislike that there is a “Black” national anthem. What part of the “blacks” in America makes them not Americans? Why do they need a separate national anthem?
ALL Americans share ONE National Anthem. Black, white, brown, yellow, pink … we are Americans.
Should we remember, teach, and celebrate the struggle to overcome prejudice that Blacks have faced in the past, and continue to face today? ABSOLUTELY.
But, by doing things such as having a “black” national anthem, focusing on the color of our current President’s skin, or distinguishing that a person should be celebrated for gaining certain notoriety even though they are some other color than white does just as much to create segregation and prejudice in our Nation as the people who negate certain folk because of their color.
The talented Rene Marie was asked to sing the National Anthem, not the anthem that a specific group of American folk has adopted as THEIR national anthem. All she did was continue to segregate herself and anyone else who happens to claim “black” as their skin color from anyone who is “white.”
I would have placed much more merit in her attempts to get her point across if she had introduced “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” explained why it was important to her, and then sang the National Anthem to tie ALL Americans together in a united front.
Your comments to this post make me just as proud to be an American, where different views are not discouraged but encouraged. This is what makes our country great. Excellent, timely, thought provoking, discussion evoking post Kat. Happy 4th and Happy Spinning!