Thursday, July 3, 2008

Renee Marie, "The Black National Anthem", "Patriotism", and The Star Spangled Banner

Silly me.  I never knew there was any such thing as "The Black National Anthem" ("Lift Every Voice and Sing", a song evidently originating as a poem by James Weldon Johnson).

However, the city of Denver had some kind of function on Tuesday.  They hired jazz artist Renee Marie to sing the national anthem.  She sang "Lift Every Voice and Sing".  No one intervened.  She later apologized for not singing "The Star Spangled Banner", explainging  (accurate paraphrase):  "I gave my artistic impression of how I love my country."

That should send ehcoes/chills up and down your spine.  First, it should remind you of Reverend Wright's alnd Farrakhan's "Black Liberation Theology"--the very theology that Barack Obama supported for 20 years before he decided a politically opportunistic makeover was in order. 

Is the very idea of a "Black Natinal Anthem" RACIST?  Maybe that is going too far..  However, it is certainly RACIALLY SEPARATIST, as are Reverend Wright and Farrakhan--not to mention the message of Obama's CHURCH for 20 years.  You might remember that Obama is supposed to be a "post-racial" candidate.  Yet, this whole idea of a "Black National Anthem" is EXACTLY the kind of thing that Everend Wright stood for during those 20 years Obama supported him. 

How is this connected to the concept of "partriotism".  You need to go to Obama again for the answer.  Obama gave a standard leftist speech this week on "patriotism" in Independence, Missouri.  It is ONLY leftists who talk much about "patriotism", because they like to USE the word as an OFFENSIVE WEAPON.  "How DARE you attack my "patritism"  is the approach, even though the word "patriotism" has never been mentioned.  WHY do leftists like to use the word?  Well, it is partially because they KNOW that they regularly do and say things that suggest that they regard their own country as the main, or at least a major, source of evil in the world.  Leftists believe, even more than President Bush, in the concept of a PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE. 

It goes beyond that, however. Leftists know that "patriotism" is a word without objective meaning (as I explained in an entry a month or so ago).  It is like "prudish".  These are words that are primarily subjective, although the American people might have had a shared, if not absolutely concrete, ideaof what "patriotism" meant until leftists went to work to attempt to render the concept absolutely meaningless.

Barack Obama in Independence, Missouri totally fuzzing any meaning for "partiotism" :(again, approximately but accurately):  "Patriotism" means supporting your country, but not necessarily supporting your government."  Translation of leftist speak:  In other words, so long as you "love" your country, ANYTHING can be patritoic (up to and including treason), so long as you think it is for the good of your country.

To again use the example I used before:  Is there any reason to believe that Benedict Arnold did not believe that he was acting for the best interests of his country (with the additional problem there of even figuring out WHICH country--Britain or the American rebellion--was "his" country)? 

This is not a new thing for leftists.  For a long time they defended Stalin and the Evil Empire of the Soviet Union.  They defended Julilus and Ethel Rosenberg, and the others, who gave the secret of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union (treason in the eyes of the law and most of us, but surely regarded as "partiotic" by the traitors themselves, and leftists).  Could you be "partiotic" and be a member of the Communist Party?  Leftists thought you could/  Yet, KGB files (after the fall of the old Soviet Union allowed them to be released) showed that the American Communist Party was ALWAYS a  creature of the Soviet Union--the ENEMY of the United States run by a MONSTER (Stalin).

Then there was Alger Hiss, which those same KGB files confirm to have been an agent of the Soviet Union.  However, leftists made a CAUSE out of Alger Hiss for decades, and even now I bet that many of the old leftists would consider him a "patriot".  In his own conscience he may have considered HIMSELF a "patriot", since he may have thought that Communism was the right thing for the world, including the USA.  Many leftists did, and DO (whether under thant name or not).   The New York Times asserts the RIGHT to release CLASSIFIED information, and to withhold the name of the traitor(s)--unless, of course, the alleged traitor happens to be Karl Rove.  If you are a "partiot" whenever you believe you are acting for the good of your country, even if you are helpng the enemies of your country,  then is it not clear that the word has no meaning?  Of course it is.  For leftists, as Barack Obama showed, the word has no meaning--except as a WEAPON to try to intimidate people out of questioning what side they are really on.

Back to Renee Marie:  Was she being "unpatriotic"?  By her leftist creed she was not, because she was expressing her "love" for her country in her own way.  It did not matter for her, as it never has mattered for leftists, that we have a SHARED national anthem, and not a separate national anthem for all groups (you can go back to illegal immigrants waving the Mexican flag, or perhaps some who are not even illegal immigrants).  Can you BE a country, if the people feel that there are NO "patriotic" symbols for the whole country--just separate, subjective ideas of what the country stands for by whites, blacks, latinos, Native Americans, Irish-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, conservatives, liberals and every other group.  Note that I am NOT saing that liberals and conservatives have to agree on the right values for our country.  But if there is NO unifying idea that we should not trash the country, and its traditions, at every opportunity, then we are NOT one country with any sense of "patriotism" at all.  The world of Barack Obama, and ar leftists in general, leads us in that direction. 

Barack Obama is a captive of the far left (despite recent speeches also proving he is a typical politician willing to contradict everything he has previously said and stood for just to get elected).  The far left wants to DESTROY the traditions of this country--the idea of this country as a force for good in the world with a proud--if flawed, as by slavery--heritage.  That is why Barack Obama is one dangerous individual.

The "Star Spangled Banner" takes a lot of heat.  That is another TACTIC of leftists.  CHANGE THE SUBJECT.  So when this kind of thing is brought up (substituting a "Black National Anthem" for the "Star Spangled Banner", leftists want to discuss not only the "right" of Renee Marie to have her own idea of what song best expresses this country, but leftists further try to switch the discussion to the faults of the Star Spangled Banner, as a national anthem and as a song.  This is the same thing leftists do when people try to talk about the evil of Islamic extremists or the old Soviet Union.  Leftists prefer to switch the subject to OUR faults, even if those faults are trivial in comparison to the faults of our enemies in the world.  Thus, and I lived through this "revisionist" leftist "spin" on the Cold War, a SPEECH by a U.S. politician crticizing the Soviet Union becomes a JUSTIFICATION for the Berline Wall and the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe--the Cold War becomes OUR FAULT. 

As I have said, I am tired of it.  I will contine to label these people (leftists, including Barack Obama, for the intellectually sterile, sanctimonious hypocrites and apologists for evil that they are).

P.S.  Yes, The Star Spangled Banner is a hard song to sing (so what--as if any of us who are not singers CARE).   Yes, it is not a wimpy song (a little martial).  To me, that is a VIRTUE, especially in these times.  The "Battle Hymn of the Republic", by which men fought and died to abolish slavery, is MORE militant, and even mentions GOD and "His TRUTH".  It is one of my favorite songs.  Yes, the UNSUNG verses of the Star Spangled Banner are forgotten, and somewhat embarassing (rater militantly anti-British in places).   So what again.  At this point, those who want to talk about replacing the Star Spangled Banner are like those who want to talk about Shakespeare not writing Shakespeare's plays--essentially kooks.  Tradition MEANS SOMETHING (although tradition has nothign to do with the FACT that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare's plays), and those who simply want to ATTACK the U.S. (or act as mean spirited carpers and nit-pickers) by attacking the Star Spangled Banner deserve no respectful hearing.   Some of them are well meaning people.  But they should get a life (I live as a hermit and have more of a life than they appear to have).

P.S. 2:  I have nothing against "Lift Every Voice and Sing" as a SONG, or as a song that African-Ameicans like to sing as a song that connects with them.  However, that does not mean that it is a defensible thing to start talking about a "Black National Anthem" that can be substitued for the real national anthem by African-Americans (or oters) who think it may better express their idea of what the U.S.A. is all about.

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