The People’s song
This is a story about America. I went to the opening day of a soccer game in my hometown of San Diego. It was the first game in the history of our club and it was a completely sold-out game. It was being reported by the local news and all over social media. They had a lot of ceremonial-type activities before the game. Local politicians were there, there was a ribbon cutting, various dedications, and all the pomp and circumstance. When the players took the field, the crowd was fully engaged. Finally—just prior to the game—it was time for our great American tradition before a sporting event: the singing of our National Anthem. Now, this is a song that often brings tears to my eyes as I remember the hundreds of thousands of men and women throughout our history who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our nation. And some of those countless heroes were my friends, my brothers that I lost—men who died defending our flag and our ideals.
So, as I thought about those heroes, I wondered who was going sing The Star Spangled Banner. Perhaps they would have some distinguished school band or a proud church choir belt out the moving song that explains our tumultuous start as republic, captures the spirit of our flag and our people. The Navy and The Marine Corps are deeply rooted in San Diego and millions of Sailors and Marines have deployed from San Diego’s shores to face our nation’s enemies. Finally, the announcer invited the crowd to stand for the singing of the national anthem and I rose to my feet with 35,000 other people. Then, to my surprise, the announcer explained that the national anthem would be performed by the crowd. It would be a sing-a-long.
It is challenging to stay in tune and tough to get the right timing and to hit the right notes. And to think that 35,000 people were going to be able to pull this off? I knew that people would sing too loud or too quiet. They would sing too high or too low. Some people wouldn’t even sing at all—and many that would sing are completely tone-deaf. It was just what I expected: some voices were too high, some too low, some too quiet, some too loud. Some were off pitch and some completely off tempo. But quickly, after a few bars, the voices started to blend together. The low voices were balanced by the high ones And, as I sang myself, I also heard it. I heard this mass of people, people from every background, people of every size, shape, color, and creed, people with a wide variety of contrasting and conflicting voices. As I heard them sing—the sum of their voices—harmonized and it sounded better than I had ever imagined it could. That group of 35,000 individuals singing together was as good as I had ever heard that song. Now: it was not perfect—but those imperfections gave it soul. They made the song human.
We are all individuals…All free to sing our tune the way we want. But together—even with all those differences—we are more alike than not. We are determined. We are tough. We are individualistic and optimistic. We will not be controlled and we will fight and die if necessary for our destiny—for our freedom. You see: We are all American. This is our country. And we are not perfect—and neither is America. We hit some bad notes. Our timing is not always perfect and our rhythm is sometimes off. But—together—bonded only by the freedom our forefathers fought for, we sing an amazing song.
This is the land of the free and the home of the brave. Sing loud and sing proud:
May God bless America.
The complete text of Jacko’s message can be found at:
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jocko-willink-sea-imperfect-voices-i-heard-anthem-spirit-nation
Mutual harmony…Kind of
Singing in the shower is all fun and games until you get shampoo in your mouth.
Then it just becomes a soap opera.
What rock group has four men that don’t sing?
Mount Rushmore.
My singing voice sounds bad in my tiny apartment.
It’s a little flat.
A Genie once granted me one wish so I said, “I just want to be happy.
So now I’m living in a little cottage with 6 dwarfs, working in a mine and singing “Whistle while you work.”
July 7th Birthdays
1980 – Michelle Kwan, 1973 – Kristen Vangsness, 1996 – Alyssa Lynch, 1968 – Amy Carlson
1967 – Jim Gaffigan, 1922 – Pierre Cardin, 1906 – Satchel Paige, , 1940 – Ringo Starr