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I had no clue, but there is a black national anthem.

It was sung (unexpectedly) at an annual State of the City address in Denver.  The singer, who was supposed to sing the actual National Anthem, apparently kept her intentions private and changed the song at the last moment… she delivered the song “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”, which is also known as the black national anthem.

While she has a nice voice, it was totally inappropriate.  It was dishonest.  It was disrespectful.  You can see in the video this was a formal meeting:  members of the police department carried in the flags, someone led the very large group in the Pledge of Allegiance, and then the switcheroo was made.  It was something I might expect of kids at a high school event, but not of adults in such a setting.

In today’s PC world, nobody had the courage to step up and sang the REAL National Anthem… nobody said anything.  The applause afterward was tepid.

The singer said she wanted to express her love of her country by mixing the lyrics of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” with the melody of the “Star-Spangled Banner.”  OK… but there’s a right time and place for such things.  The mayor said he didn’t think she was making a political statement.  Sure.  Hers was a deliberate act, singing an old song but putting it to the tune of our National Anthem (here is the real tune, if you’re curious… Jessie Jackson introduces Kim Weston).

Other than the fact that the chosen singer did not do the job she was selected to do, I see a deeper problem with this type of expression.  It further supports the idea some people have that we are not one UNITED nation.  For some reason, there are some people who seem to believe they owe allegiance to some minority group they’re members of to a greater degree than they owe allegiance to their native country.

In other words, some African-Americans think they owe some loyalty or homage to Africa to a GREATER degree than they do the United States despite having been born in the U.S.  Similarly, some Mexican-Americans who were born in the country display the same kind of behavior.  Why is that?

I believe it is good to honor your heritage, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but you don’t place more emphasis, more importance on that than you do your actual, current circumstances.  A hundred years ago when people were immigrating to the U.S. from all over the world, there were many people with mixed backgrounds… born in another country but now living in and citizens of our country… who, while keeping their culture alive and certainly honoring it, EMBRACED the U.S.and all it meant to them.  They become “American” first, and Irish (or German or Italian or whatever) second.

Again, it is important to honor your ancestry… but there’s no need to diminish who you are today in the process.  In fact, it is important to place more value on who you are right now.  Anything else is “living in the past”. WE are a diverse nation with people of all backgrounds, and that is part of what makes us both strong and unique.   WE can enjoy each others’ customs while still maintaining the integrity of being a citizen of this great nation.  WE can be the best of everything and still be unified… if we choose to be.

In recent years, it seems to be common to find people taking more pride in a foreign national heritage than they have pride in the United States, the country where they were born and live… in most cases, they have never set foot on any other soil.  Sometimes, it isn’t even a national heritage they put more focus on… sometimes, it some other political advocacy.  Given the many factions posturing in the public these days, our National Anthem could have just as easily have been used as the tune for lyrics supporting gay rights, gun rights, national healthcare, union membership, welfare programs, tax reform, global warming, abortion, religion, and so on… and would have been just as inappropriate and indicative of a problem in our society.

Just as an amalgam of metals becomes a stronger combined material than any of the individual components (which surrender some of their own unique chemical properties in the process),  the collective PEOPLE of our country… the “melting pot”… is stronger by becoming “one”.  It should be obvious, then, that WE cannot be “one” if any group of us decides to promote their individual “value” above that of the whole.

There is an old saying which holds great truth:  united we stand, divided we fall.