Keep The National Anthem At Sporting Events

I was flipping through the sports pages of our local daily the other day ... mostly looking for scores of some local teams I'm interested in, and on that particular day looking for some specific NASCAR news ... and here is a five-column headline saying "Critics question National Anthem at sporting events." It was a 17-paragraph story with a two-column photo, one of the dominant stories in that issue.

The story covered the sorry saga of some of the people who have butchered the National Anthem, including the disgraceful performance by Roseanne Barr at the 1990 San Diego Padres game. And the story asked the question: "Why sing it in the first place at a public sporting event that otherwise has nothing to do with politics, patriotism or war?" The writer of the story does point out that there is a historical tradition going back at least to World War II, and that it would be hard to stop. It does not identify the so-called critics, but it ends this way: "... some columnists and critics have declared it's finally time to shelve the tradition with patriotism now a more divisive issue than a unifying one." Let me repeat that: "... with patriotism now a more divisive issue than a unifying one."

Let me tell you something ... I generally like sports and I think athletics should be an important part of any youngster's growing up. I tend to defend the sports world, even in the face of scandals like steroids in baseball. But when the voices of the sporting world start demeaning American patriotism ... especially when we have troops in harm's way in Iraq ... then I've got to ask the question: why should we support big time sporting events in the first place? Have our elite million dollar athletes, and the opinionated reporters who cover them, decided they are now more important than we everyday Americans who love this country, fight its wars, and pay good money to watch their games?
This is Gordon Sawyer, and may the wind always be at your back.