Intriguing story on NPR this morning: Schools no longer have students sing patriotic songs in a group the way they used to sing them in the 1940s through 1960s and even into the early 1970s. Too many mentions of G_d, and even "bombs bursting in air," perhaps. One question arises: Because the United States welcomes people from all nations (up until the wall is built, anyway), why don't we sing the national anthems from all countries?
What we lose by dropping the practice is a sense of unity. Music literally and figuratively puts us into harmony with our fellow humans. Singing songs that identify the singers as belonging to the same group helps to unify people. Currently, we seem to have devolved and polarized into factions within the country, and into self-identified tribes, two of which are called the Republican and Democratic parties. These fractious factions have lost sight of the fact that we're all citizens of these United States. I'm not feeling the unity. How about you?
There's a sweet little parade I attended last Fourth of July with my husband, daughter, and granddaughter, in the town of Piedmont. Just the right size and homey enough that I got all teary-eyed with the earnest effort of neighbors coming out to celebrate together that "our flag is still there." There are flags waving, bands playing, horses clopping, people clapping in rhythm to one patriotic song or another, dogs dressed in red, white and blue, people dressed up in period clothing, from the seventeen and eighteen hundreds. It's a grand spectacle, but not overly grand.
Count us in for this Fourth of July as well. Look for us under an umbrella, humming America the Beautiful, wearing holiday finery.
What ever you do... may the Fourth be WITH you!
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