2008 Woodie Awards
Letter to the editor
Issue date: 2/19/07 Section: Opinion
I am an alumnus year 2000. I was at the Homecoming/Alumni night game of January 27, 2007. Everything happened to script that night. A weaker team walked onto the basketball court to face the Lady Peregrines and the Lady Peregrines prevailed. All the game details were aptly described by Jessica Cochran in the Jan. 29 issue of The Chronicle. The moment that left an indelible impression on me was the singing of The National Anthem of the United States of America. The National Anthem means a lot to me. The announcer asked all present to stand for the singing of The National Anthem and I did so proudly. I am filled with pride because I am a Vietnam veteran, and a former mineman 1st Class instrumental in the mining of Haiphong Harbor. I am a patriot.
About 30 seconds into that particular rendition of The National Anthem I took my seat. When asked why I made such a display of disrespect during the singing of The National Anthem I replied, "I don't know whose national anthem was being performed but that was not my National Anthem."
In all fairness I will admit that the performance did remotely resemble what I have come to know as The National Anthem in the same way that the mountains of garbage that form the Paxton landfills located in southeast Chicago were what Katherine Lee Bates meant by the words, "purple mountained majesty."
There is blame to be laid here. Students endeavoring in artistic pursuits are being taught creativity and artistic expression at the expense of integrity. This started many years ago with the likes of Roseanne Barr on July 25, 1990, when she defiantly screeched out The National Anthem at a San Diego Padres game, grabbed her crotch and spit on the ground. Students today are sadly buying into this misguided "rebel without a cause" form of defiant artistic expression with no particular agenda advancement in mind. It is a social cancer.
That, however, is the symptom. The cause is a pervasive national apathy toward the erosion of the basic values and beliefs of free thinking people. Our educators are turning a blind eye (or in this case, ear) to the proliferation of the gross modification of existing composition, musical and others, in the name of creative license. To modify a sculpture or painting in such a manner would be considered vandalism!
François Marie Arouet (Voltaire) said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Jean Cocteau said, "There are truths which one can only say after having won the right to say them." Tillie Olsen said, "…this falsifies reality, this degrades." All promote an idea and philosophy of truth. All understood the sacrifices that are made in search of truth. All have made that sacrifice and are thus, credible. All those involved with the singing of The National Anthem at the Homecoming/Alumni night game of Jan. 27 are incredible and unbelievable. That performance was as artistic as the vulgar vandalism scrawled along an inner city railroad corridor. It is blight on the art of music. It is shameful.
Fernando Florek MSW
PUC Alumnus, 2000
Communications
About 30 seconds into that particular rendition of The National Anthem I took my seat. When asked why I made such a display of disrespect during the singing of The National Anthem I replied, "I don't know whose national anthem was being performed but that was not my National Anthem."
In all fairness I will admit that the performance did remotely resemble what I have come to know as The National Anthem in the same way that the mountains of garbage that form the Paxton landfills located in southeast Chicago were what Katherine Lee Bates meant by the words, "purple mountained majesty."
There is blame to be laid here. Students endeavoring in artistic pursuits are being taught creativity and artistic expression at the expense of integrity. This started many years ago with the likes of Roseanne Barr on July 25, 1990, when she defiantly screeched out The National Anthem at a San Diego Padres game, grabbed her crotch and spit on the ground. Students today are sadly buying into this misguided "rebel without a cause" form of defiant artistic expression with no particular agenda advancement in mind. It is a social cancer.
That, however, is the symptom. The cause is a pervasive national apathy toward the erosion of the basic values and beliefs of free thinking people. Our educators are turning a blind eye (or in this case, ear) to the proliferation of the gross modification of existing composition, musical and others, in the name of creative license. To modify a sculpture or painting in such a manner would be considered vandalism!
François Marie Arouet (Voltaire) said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Jean Cocteau said, "There are truths which one can only say after having won the right to say them." Tillie Olsen said, "…this falsifies reality, this degrades." All promote an idea and philosophy of truth. All understood the sacrifices that are made in search of truth. All have made that sacrifice and are thus, credible. All those involved with the singing of The National Anthem at the Homecoming/Alumni night game of Jan. 27 are incredible and unbelievable. That performance was as artistic as the vulgar vandalism scrawled along an inner city railroad corridor. It is blight on the art of music. It is shameful.
Fernando Florek MSW
PUC Alumnus, 2000
Communications
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