Wiston Papers

"Oh, Say Can You Sing..." apparently not.

Where is patriotism in American athletics?  It’s obviously missing.   Perhaps the Grinch who stole Christmas has also abducted our pride in America.

    Most recently it was absent  last night before Game One of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Championship series.

    Sixteen year old singer Jessica Sanchez did her best to search for some sense of U.S. national unity with her loud, enthusiastic--if occasionally off note--rendition of our National Anthem.  

    But as the TV cameras panned the audience in the stadium and brought us close ups of the players wearing Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat uniforms, who was singing?  No one.  

    No lips moving to the lyrics; no attempt to feign knowledge of the words; nothing, nada.  

    Sadly this is not the first time The Star Spangled Banner has been been so blatantly ignored.  No male U.S. professional athlete of any sport demonstrates that he either knows the words or cares.  Instead they stand looking bored, disinterested and anxious to “get it on” for the benefit of equally oblivious fans.

    Contrast the American attitude with the athletes currently on display at the UEFA European Football Championship in Poland and Ukraine.  There every player for every one of the 16 teams battling for the title makes at least an attempt to sing the lyrics of the respective national anthem.  And many of these professionals are not even citizens of the country they’re playing for.  But they show respect.  

    So why don’t we?  Perhaps our declining educational systems no longer sing or teach the words to the national anthem.  Perhaps The Star Spangled Banner was eliminated in another round of draconian budget cuts.  

    Or perhaps we’ve outsourced our national anthem and national pride along with our jobs.  Has everything gone abroad?

    If so perhaps we’ll hear the words in London when the first American Olympic Athlete to win a gold medal stands atop the podium during the awards ceremony.  The American flag is slowly raised, the orchestra begins to play the U.S. National Anthem, and a few voices proudly try to sing.  

    It will be a great moment, but will it be a American voices?  I hope so.  But recent evidence is not reassuring.

   

Steve Coon
June 13, 2012