Posted on 12/06/2012 5:42:00 PM PST by Altura Ct.
Students at Capital High School (CHS) in Charleston, West Virginia have been regularly forced to stand during the playing of a song known as "The Black National Anthem."
The song, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," was played in the morning right after the American national anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance, and students were forced to stand for all three. While the law currently states that no child can be compelled to stand for any kind of pledge, controversy only arose at CHS after two students and a parent complained about having to stand for the "Black National Anthem" (BNA).
To make matters worse, Clinton Giles, the black principal of CHS who made the requirement, allegedly ridiculed a child for his refusal to stand during the BNA. As the Daily Mail (the link to the original article is no longer valid) wrote:
Kim Bailey is the mother of one student who chose not to stand. She said the song is considered the "African-American National Anthem" and it was disrespectful to make students stand for it.
Her son chose not to stand and was sent to the office several times because of his decision, she said. She also said Giles made statements over the loudspeaker about the situation that "ostracized" her son.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Parents are in charge of their childrens’ education. We do them a world a world of disservice pretending otherwise. That student needs an adult in his world to help him to be an American as do his schoolmates. He’s probably nearly the only one who knew his parent/s would support him as much as they could.
THE WIMPINESS is the problem.
Forced, my a
there is no such thing as a black national anthem, i don’t care what anyone says or believes.
the last idea this country needs is that we have different anthems for different races of people. this is just more balkanization and breakup of the country.
screw this entire concept.
kids aren’t forced to stand for the real Anthem
these people need fired!!
Not. In. A. Million. Years.
“Government is a parasite — a cancer that by nature tries to spread deeper into society. Those who want to run others’ lives won’t give up and start minding their own business.” -Harry Browne
“Schools have not necessarily much to do with education... they are mainly institutions of control, where basic habits must be inculcated in the young. Education is quite different and has little place in school.” -Winston Churchill
Education should aim at destroying free will so that after pupils are thus schooled they will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their school masters would have wished ... “ —Johann Gotlieb fitche
I bet he wont be principal next year......
what country is the black national anthem from? blackica?
there’s black people in kenya, but i think they refer to their national anthem as the kenyan national athem.
What nonsensical bullshit!!! ...and in West(By God) Virginia of all places!
That “principal” should be thrown the hell out of his position. He has no business running a school.
Really, how FAR removed is this from having Blacks and Whites only restrooms and water fountains?
Check out the words. Although the song was composed and sung in 1900 from a Negro perspective, it is not really so much a racial hymn as it is a song about the struggle for freedom, and it is a prayer to God. As I see it, the song is not separatist at all.
I don’t think that white people have a reason to fear this one. It is better than most of what their kids are getting in school. The words to the song actually end with a prayer for the country.
But wait until the atheists see this! They are the ones who will want it banned.
As to whether it should be sung every day, I am not sure. But it could be used as an occasional alternate to other patriotic songs.
Here at the public school in my NJ town, for the Holiday program, there are no explicitly Christian songs: only roasting Chestnuts Roasting , and other purely secular seasonal songs. But there were last year no less than three Hanuka songs, which seems a bit excessive, since first Hanuka is a rather minor Jewish holiday, and second, there are almost no Jewish students in the town. There were several Kwanzaa songs, one praising the virtue of collective work. All that Kwanzaa stuff is totally synthetic. Its garbage.
By contrast, Lift Every Voice is genuine, and far better than most compositions being produced today. I don’t think that it was written as a nationalist hymn, so much as a freedom song. Bear in mind that it was first performed just over 30 years after the Civil War. Freedom was the issue, as it is still today, for all of us!
“Lift Every Voice and Sing” is in our church’s hymnal and is occasionally used in our worship services. When we first sang it, I knew nothing of its history but noted the 1920 copyright date in our hymnal and figured it was inspired by World War I. Although I later learned that it was composed before the war, images of World War I still go through my mind when it is sung. Here are the words:
Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered;
Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.
Amen! I wish I could be put in charge of editing the Methodist Hymnal. I'd throw out everything written after 1939. Gerald Kennedy's "God of Love and God of Power" (1939) would be the newest hymn in the book.
Its not fear, its dedication to our unity as Americans. E Pluribus Unum, remember?
Its not fear, its dedication to our unity as Americans. E Pluribus Unum, remember?
Read the headline.
We home schooled, but our daughter went to HS for 3 years. In a discussion I had with the superintendent of schools I politely but firmly told him “The school system is assisting us in the education of our child. We are in charge of her education, you are here to assist us, not the other way around.”
My daughter was quite well instructed as to what her rights were and that no one at the school was to violate them. Period. There is no way this could have happened to her. She would never have let anyone working for the school lay a hand on her. We told her that you do what is right and tell us the truth and we will back you to the Supreme Court. She did, and I never let the system bully her on anything of consequence.
I suspect they were quite pleased when she graduated....to see the last of both of us. /chuckle
I was going to add what you just articulated here. Parents’ telling informing their children of their rights and who support them (consistently, for the sake of trust, of course), is an important aspect to this.
The truth is that the educational system is there to serve parents by assisting them to educate their children. No one, even a principal, has to agree with this, it is simply the truth. Children need a lot more oversight than they’re getting on this. I feel so sorry for them, they’re so neglected and aimless/leaderless.
Which native land do you suppose the Black national anthem is referring to?
“may we forever stand
true to our God, true to our native land.”
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