Posted on 07/14/2003 7:32:25 AM PDT by yankeedame
Last Updated: Monday, 14 July, 2003, 08:46 GMT 09:46 UK
Beyonce's 'grave dance' causes grief
Pop singer Beyonce Knowles should not have been allowed to perform a scantily-clad dance on the tomb of former United States President Ulysses S Grant, a historical group has said. The star danced in a "patently inappropriate" way on the steps to the tomb during a nationally-televised 4 July concert, according to Frank Scaturro, president of the Grant Monument Association.
The Destiny's Child chart-topper used "lascivious choreography" and her backing dancers were barely dressed, Mr Scaturro said in a letter to NBC, which filmed the performance.
Her latest single, Crazy In Love, is currently number one in the UK and US.
A certain decorum should have been observed from which popular entertainers are not exempt
Frank Scaturro Grant Monument Association And her album held onto the top spot in the UK on Sunday but was knocked off the summit in the US by Ashanti last week.
In his letter, Mr Scaturro wrote: "At that location, a certain decorum should have been observed from which popular entertainers are not exempt."
The letter also went to the Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, and National Park Service director Fran Mainella.
Watch Beyonce perform Crazy In Love on Top of the Pops Ulysses S Grant was a Civil War hero who became the 18th president, between 1869-77.
His tomb, erected as a national monument in 1897, is in New York. The concert was part of the annual Macy's Fourth of July celebrations.
Also performing were American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson plus Sheryl Crow and John Mellencamp.
'More thoughtful'
Ulysses Grant Dietz, the great-great-grandson of Ulysses S Grant, said he did not object to most live performances, as long as the tomb was looked after.
But organisers could have been more thoughtful, he added.
"If they're doing a Fourth of July celebration and they're doing it at a grave of a president, maybe they should look a little more closely at what the performances are."
NBC and Beyonce were not available for comment and a National Park Service spokesman did not want to comment because he had not seen the letter.
Lighten the ef up, will ya?
And if I WERE a Southerner and thought for a MINUTE all Yankees were as obnoxious as you, I would NEVER go north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Then again, it may have sounded proper when one considers the frequently used alternative from my boyhood. My Mom and Dad were hell on the "n-word", but interestingly enough, my Dad's brothers were some of the vilest racists I ever met. I'm not sure where they picked that up, as my grandparents were certainly not that way... and in fact my Dad and his brothers were to a large extent raised by a black man and woman who worked with their family. They grew up with a black "Aunt" and "Uncle."
1. We know better
2. You're in good company
It's precisely the reason the myths about the man propogated. It's the reason his reputation was besmirched after the war. People repeated it, and it spread, and no one care whether it was true or not.
So yeah, I feel an obligation to step in when I see it or hear it and refute. That's not obnoxious. Say whatever you want about him, but I'll defend him and refute your statements each and every time.
As to the comment about owning slaves, I stand by it when it comes to southern sympathizers. Because there's no excuse for it and it is the reason they were fighting the war. All the rationalization in the world doesn't change the fact that in the end, they were fighting to preserve an agrarian aristocracy that sustained its existence by turning other men into beasts. You're confusing indignation with "hysteria" but that's your problem.
Sorry, I don't let any southern sympathizers or "Lost Cause" adherents off on that one. I'll call it exactly as I see it. And anyone who wishes the south had won, or supports the southern cause, in the end, is wishing that slavery had remained an institution. Period. There isn't any escaping the fact, no matter how "obnoxious" anyone thinks it is to point that fact out, or how much they don't want to hear it.
I support the Sons of Confederate Veterans and their desire to preserve their heritage, and their right to fly the Confederate battleflag over their cemeteries, monuments, and state capitols.
Try not to pass out...breathe, breathe...
I wouldn't run in the next meeting and say Grant's #1, though.
Turning blue, Huckberry?
It was one thing to fight the war, and be on the wrong side of the issue. That's a debate I fight in historical circles.
But the fact that the descendents of men who fought and died, gallantly - and who in the end were Americans - want to preserve the memory of their ancestors and honor their valor...that I have no problem with and I think they have every right to do so...and no one has the right to tell them to take down their flags or remove their names from hospitals and schools or tear down their monuments.
I argue quite often with those who seek the removal of the Confederate battleflag from every place it flies. It is not a racist symbol. It is a battleflag and men fought and died under it.
The fact that some backwoods, redneck, inbred morons with two teeth want to wear white pointy hoods and happen to wave the "Stars & Bars" doesn't make the Confederate battleflag a racist symbol. The Klan waves and flies the American flag too, and as I often ask, does that make the American flag a racist symbol too?
Anyway, my support for Grant and the Union, and occassionally reminding "Lost Cause" diehards who want to besmirch certain Union generals because it makes them feel better, doesn't extend to besmirching the southern generals and leaders or besmirching the gallant men who fought and died in one of the worst wars the world has ever seen.
Most of the SCV men I've met are gentlemen, and quite level headed about the war and its outcome.
Godwin's Law /prov./ [Usenet] "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." There is a tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, that thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups.
Ah, so if I call you a Nazi, I lose, while if you are a Nazi, you win...
This variation in Godwin's Law is apt since you have accused me of being PRO-SLAVERY! All because I said the that General Grant drank! (And we didn't even get to his terrific job as President of the US).
So, you've lost (but many on this thread knew you were a loser already...)
Oh, I am simply crushed because Pharmboy thinks I'm a loser...in fact, there's probably two or three other people on the thread who think so too...oh, crushed! Crushed, I am!
Whatever shall I do?
Maybe I'll go have a dram of single-malt to wash away the blues...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.