A Super Bowl anthem solution

Following the well-intentioned but ultimately destructive civil rights legislation of the sixties, the Democrat party has successfully created a racial schism in our nation. If the national melting pot seems to be working too well, they reduce it to a stew and then extract and isolate the various ingredients. If the races seem to be getting along too well, bring on a despot like Barack Obama.

Obama’s accession to the presidency, with all its promise of being the ultimate uniter of the races within our borders, instead caused precisely the opposite. He achieved exactly what he set out to do: he deepened the existing racial divide by driving a wedge between people of color and the melanin-deprived segments of our population. He fundamentally changed our nation, and not for the better.

Decades ago, Bob Dylan told us we didn’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind blew. Today, it doesn’t take a social scientist or widely circulated pundit to perceive what is happening in the United States. You only have to watch the Super Bowl pre-game festivities. More precisely, you only have to watch the performance of the so-called Black national anthem. “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

I am told that Andra Day performed a very nice rendition of the song, which was written in 1917 by James Weldon Johnson with music by his brother J. Rosamond Johnson as a civil rights spiritual/chorale. I didn’t see it because I turned on the telecast much nearer game time. I did see Reba McEntire sing our true national anthem, and she did a fine job. But racial sparks are flying this morning, much as they have since 2020 when the use of the racially divisive anthem was first performed at a Super Bowl. Democrat politicians are lamenting the fact that few stood for the Black anthem while all took to their feet for “The Star-Spangled Banner.” At least one Republican politician cited the song’s performance as a reason not to watch the game at all. So where do we go from here?

I have a German-Irish heritage. I could demand that next year’s Super Bowl play “Danny Boy” and maybe a nice German drinking song before the contest. My Italian friends would like “That’s Amore” played, and Spanish friends would prefer the Macarena. But I have a better idea.

Whitney Houston sang the national anthem before the 1991 Super Bowl. I defy you to find a better performance of the song. She sang without vocal histrionics or embellishment. I can listen to it over and over and still get goosebumps. So why not mandate that a recording of her performance kick off (pun intended) every year’s Super Bowl? A Black woman singing the anthem for all of us would be inspirational. Everyone would stand and treasure her rendition, even Barack Obama if he happened to be in attendance.

Bill Hansmann is a dentist and dental educator with over fifty years in the profession. He continues to teach and write political blogs and semi-mediocre novels while living with his wife and cats in Georgia.

Image: Department of Defense