Posted on 03/09/2002 8:14:56 AM PST by Registered
News Release: American Red Cross Statement Regarding
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| Contact: Dana Allen allenda@usa.redcross.org Phone: 703-206-8107 Pager: 877-869-9816 |
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ORANGE COUNTY, March 8, 2002 — The Sunday volunteer recognition program at the American Red Cross Orange County Chapter in Santa Ana, California, honors America both through the presentation of colors and in the music program.
The American Red Cross Chapter in Orange County and the Orange County High School of the Arts regret that we were not able to reach agreement on the music program with conductor Cherilyn Bacon. The dispute was over the music program and has nothing to do with patriotism. "God Bless America" is a wonderful song.
The event begins with the posting of the American Flag and the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner." The dispute centers only on our sensitivity to religious diversity, and a preference for a music program that would be inclusive and not offend different populations participating in this particular event.
© Copyright 2001, The American Red Cross, Orange County Chapter. All Rights Reserved.
Long live the Salvation Army! They get my money from now on!!
They are a money grabbing pile of dung!
I quit donating blood to them 40+- years ago when they quit allowing you to build up a reserve that could be used by yourself or donated to a specific recipient. I won't give them blood or one lousy cent.
What a disgusting crap
Verse 3 is my most favorite, and I had NEVER heard it until late one night in the late 70's Sir SuziQ were watching the end of programming on a PBS station in Tallahassee FL. You remember, when most stations signed off about 1 or 2 am because there was nothing else to put on. I knew that all stations did the Star Spangled Banner, but this night it was two women singing it with only a guitar accompaniment. When they got to the third verse they sang a duet and it was the first time I had EVER heard the words to the third verse. I swear I got fahklempt listening to it! It was all the more amazing because it was on PBS!
I can't believe the Red Cross can be so obtuse!
"'God Bless America' is a wonderful song. But we're too cowardly to pay tribute to the Creator from Whom all rights descend, and after Whose teachings our very nation was founded. Consequently, we will refuse to mention His name. We have elected to substitute the Rolling Stones' 'Sympathy for the Devil' instead."
Odd how the nation seemed to think that The Battle Hymn of the Republic -- you know, the one that goes "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord ..." -- was appropriate at the CATHEDRAL when the president and our leaders memorialized the victims of 9/11. I guess God has served His purpose. Time to put Him back in the closet.
By the way, the Orange County Red Cross would get a dime from me just about the time Carrie Nation threw a kegger.
This is to inform you that I am undertaking a call to boycott contributions to Red Cross in favor of any and all other relief agencies who know how to avoid insulting and defaming the millions of Christian contributors to the Red Cross in the past.
The Orange County Chapter's arrogant and demeaning rejection of a performance of "God Bless America" in a program by Americans to honor American heros has no justification at all. While such inanity is, by itself, of little consequence, the fact that there seem to be no sensible people within either the Orange County chapter or the National Red Cross, able and willing to reverse this insult, shows me that the Red Cross is not worthy of the confidence and support of truly tolerant Americans.
I am, therefore, using every resource at my disposal to spread the word that genuinely tolerant Americans should immediately commit themselves to withhold all funds from any affiliate of the Red Cross, until those responsible for this insult have been fired, and the National Red Cross has widely and prominently apologized and made amends to those who have been defamed and insulted by the Orange County Red Cross' intolerant and bigoted ban on this song and those who were scheduled to perform it.
[name snipped for this copy of the above]
Protests to the American Red Cross may be lodged at http://www.redcross.org/contactus.html
This had them jumping up and down and screaming in even Europe!
Could the problem be that there just aren't any Moslem "patriotic" songs?
In no more than five years some poor slob will be brought up on charges for responding to another's sneeze with the highly inflamatory and insensitive "God Bless you".
Mark the date
For Fair Use Only
The Women Who Went to the Field
by Clara Barton
The women who went to the field, you say,
The women who went to the field; and pray
What did they go for? Just to be in the way!—
They'd not know the difference betwixt work and play,
What did they know about war anyway?
What could they do? of what use could they be?
They would scream at the sight of a gun, don't you see?
Just fancy them round where the bugle notes play,
And the long roll is bidding us on to the fray.
Imagine their skirts 'mong artillery wheels,
And watch for their flutter as they flee 'cross the fields
When the charge is rammed home and the fire belches hot;
They never will wait for the answering shot.
They would faint at the first drop of blood, in their sight.
What fun for us boys,—(ere we enter the fight;)
They might pick some lint, and tear up some sheets,
And make us some jellies, and send on their sweets,
And knit some soft socks for Uncle Sam's shoes,
And write us some letters, and tell us the news.
And thus it was settled by common consent,
That husbands, or brothers, or whoever went,
That the place for the women was in their own homes,
There to patiently wait until victory comes.
But later, it chanced, just how no one knew,
That the lines slipped a bit, and some gan to crowd through;
And they went, where did they go? Ah; where did they not?
Show us the battle, the field, or the spot
Where the groans of the wounded rang out on the air
That her ear caught it not, and her hand was not there,
Who wiped the death sweat from the cold clammy brow,
And sent home the message;— "'Tis well with him Now"?
Who watched in the tents, whilst the fever fires burned,
And the pain-tossing limbs in agony turned,
And wet the parched tongue, calmed delirium's strife
Till the dying lips murmured, "My Mother," "My Wife"!
And who were they all? They were many, my men:
Their record was kept by no tabular pen:
They exist in traditions from father to son.
Who recalls, in dim memory, now here and there one.
A few names were writ, and by chance live to-day;
But's a perishing record fast fading away.
Of those we recall, there are scarcely a score,
Dix, Dame, Bickerdyke,—Edson, Harvey, and Moore,
Fales, Wittenmyer, Gilson, Safford and Lee,
And poor Cutter dead in the sands of the sea;
And Frances D. Gage, our "Aunt Fanny" of old,
Whose voice rang for freedom when freedom was sold.
And Husband, and Etheridge, and Harlan and Case,
Livermore, Alcott, Hancock, and Chase,
And Turner, and Hawley, and Potter, and Hall.
Ah! The list grows apace, as they come at the call:
Did these women quail at the sight of a gun?
Will some soldier tell us of one he saw run?
Will he glance at the boats on the great western flood,
At Pittsburgh and Shiloh, did they faint at the blood?
And the brave wife of Grant stood there with them then,
And her calm, stately presence gave strength to his men.
And Marie of Logan; she went with them too;
A bride, scarcely more than a sweetheart, tis true.
Her young cheek grows pale when the bold troopers ride.
Where the "Black Eagle" soars, she is close at his side,
She staunches his blood, cools the fever-burnt breath,
And the wave of her hand stays the Angel of Death;
She nurses him back, and restores once again
To both army and state the brave leader of men.
She has smoothed his black plumes and laid them to sleep,
Whilst the angels above them their high vigils keep:
And she sits here alone, with the snow on her brow
Your cheers for her comrades! Three cheers for her now.
And these were the women who went to the war:
The women of question; what did they go for?
Because in their hearts God had planted the seed
Of pity for woe, and help for its need;
They saw, in high purpose, a duty to do,
And the armor of right broke the barriers through.
Uninvited, unaided, unsanctioned oft times,
With pass, or without it, they pressed on the lines;
They pressed, they implored, till they ran the lines through,
And this was the "running" the men saw them do.
Twas a hampered work, its worth largely lost;
Twas hindrance, and pain, and effort, and cost:
But through these came knowledge, knowledge is power.
And never again in the deadliest hour
Of war or of peace, shall we be so beset
To accomplish the purpose our spirits have met.
And what would they do if war came again?
The scarlet cross floats where all was blank then.
They would bind on their "brassards" and march to the fray,
And the man liveth not who could say to them nay;
They would stand with you now, as they stood with you then,
The nurses, consolers, and saviors of men.
American Association of the Red Cross, established by Clara Barton in 1881.
Madeline Allbright
William Cohen
Donna Shalala...A who's who of the Clinton years. I wonder if these are appointed positions.
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