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The Nationals and the National Anthem
CHRONWATCH.COM ^ | NOVEMBER 26, 2004 | JAY BRYANT

Posted on 11/27/2004 7:51:00 PM PST by CHARLITE

There was a time in America when the state of patriotism was such that the sponsors of sporting events could stop brawls by playing the National Anthem, upon hearing which the combatants would stop fighting and stand at attention.

That technique was not tried in the Palace at Auburn Hills Friday night, for the simple reason that no one could imagine it would work in these days of unbridled irreverence. You can take the boyz out of the 'hood, but you can't take the 'hood out of the boyz, so to speak. And by the way, I don't mean only the 'hoods where boyz like Ron Artest and Jermaine O'Neal grew up, but also the ones native to the white fans who populate the stands at venues like the Palace.

In the wake of the 1994 Tanya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan scandal, George Will remarked that such incidents often lead commentators to ''go out and commit sociology,'' his point being that not every example of loutish behavior is evidence of generalized societal decline. But Will is also the author of the phrase ''the coarsening of society,'' with which words he eloquently summarizes the generalized societal decline anyone over a certain age knows he or she has been living through.

Playing the National Anthem used to stop fistfights because there was a time when even your basic lowlife brawler recognized that his grievance against the other jerk was less important than the patriotic loyalty that united them. That point was precisely the reason for playing the anthem at sporting events in the first place--to remind players and fans that however spirited their battle, however much they might view themselves as antagonists one to the other, they owed a common respect to the nation under whose laws and heritage they were free to engage in the event of the day.

Just this week the new Washington Nationals baseball team was officially named and endowed with a very retro logo, which harkens back to the days when fans attended ball games in tie, jacket, and fedora, attire that must to some degree have impeded fisticuffs, although fights certainly did break out from time to time, even during prohibition.

Among the evidence for societal decline during Washington's 33-year absence from the major league baseball scene is this: that many in the area took to rooting for the team at the other end of the Parkway, the Baltimore Orioles. In and of itself, this is perhaps no great travesty, at least until Orioles ownership passed to the horrid Peter Angelos.

Currently attempting to buy a Washington-area racetrack and install slot machines, scumbag Angelos surely finishes dead last among baseball moguls when it comes to patriotism, too. The worst sort of left-wing Squeegee Boy lawyer, he made his megabucks as a veritable pioneer of the litigious society that currently afflicts America. So complete is Angelos' radical ideology that he refuses to sign any Cuban defectors to his roster, lest he upset his friend Fidel Castro, with whom he communed during the home-and-home series he set up between the Orioles and the Cuban national team in 1999.

But my real beef with the Orioles and their fans is that they engage in what I call the audio defacing of the Star Spangled Banner. Go to any sporting event in the area, not just an Orioles game, and you will hear it. When the singer reaches the line that goes "O, say, does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave," people will shout "O's!'' drowning out the "O, say." So much for the anthem as a unifying force.

This disrespectful, unpatriotic and boorish behavior has become so widespread one even hears it at area non-sporting events. It should never have been allowed to happen. The Orioles should have put a stop to it; the media should have spoken out against it. The audio desecration is all the worse for being headquartered in the city where the Star Spangled Banner was penned in the first place.

I am reliably informed that fans in other cities do not similarly deface the National Anthem, though several would have the same sort of linguistic opportunity. Cincinnati fans could shout "Reds!" at the part about the rocket's glare, Atlantans "Braves!" on the last word, and football-loving St. Louisans could find the ram in ramparts. (Or, how about Houston basketball crowds honoring their star player Yao by shouting "Ming!" after the twilight's last gleam?)

Nope, Baltimore's boorishness beats all, but surely no longer, at least not here. We've got our own team now, albeit one which only last year stood in attention to another country's anthem.

I know it's too much to ask for a new wave of patriotism to sweep across the land, for athletes settle their differences on the field, court, or gridiron of play, and fans confine their criticisms to shouting banal epithets such as "kill the ump!" instead of actually trying to do it.

But at least we ought to be able to strike a blow against the odious Orioles cacophony.

About the Writer: Jay Bryant is a media consultant whose regular op-ed columns are available on his website at

http://www.theoptimate.com


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: american; nationalanthem; respect; sports; starspangledbanner; teams; traditions

1 posted on 11/27/2004 7:51:01 PM PST by CHARLITE
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To: CHARLITE

Considering the team is in Washington, the team name should be the 'BUZZARDS'. What more represents a city that loves to pick it's taxpaying prey clean?


2 posted on 11/27/2004 7:55:07 PM PST by JesseJane (Air France flights 1192, 491, 288, 751, 216, now boarding...)
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To: JesseJane

How about the "Crack Whores," in honor of Marion Berry.


3 posted on 11/27/2004 8:42:52 PM PST by Angry Republican (yvan eht nioj!)
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To: CHARLITE
As an O's fan, I never cared for the screaming "O" part.

BTW, does anyone else notice that this article spends half the time blasting my Orioles? I thought this was about using the National Anthem to ease the tension at sporting events.

4 posted on 11/27/2004 8:45:09 PM PST by Angry Republican (yvan eht nioj!)
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To: CHARLITE

Re: "a common respect to the nation..."

After 40 years of multiculturalism and "Celebrate Diversity!", it's hardly surprising that we don't find too much of that anymore...


5 posted on 11/27/2004 10:03:06 PM PST by Frank_2001
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To: Angry Republican

No, what hes commenting on without realizing it is that the circuses are still just as important as the bread when distracting and satisfying the masses.


6 posted on 11/27/2004 11:00:45 PM PST by gnarledmaw (I traded freedom for security and all I got were these damned shackles.)
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To: Angry Republican

"BTW, does anyone else notice that this article spends half the time blasting my Orioles? I thought this was about using the National Anthem to ease the tension at sporting events."

He misled you with that opening, it seems clear that the purpose of that article is to denounce the Orioles, their fans and their "scumbag" owner. Now, the owner sounds like a pretty bad guy, but it is strange to see the word "scumbag" in an article that is decrying the coarsening of the culture.


7 posted on 11/28/2004 3:05:23 AM PST by jocon307 (Jihad is world wide. Jihad is serious business. We ignore global jihad at our peril.)
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