Lisa at Two Babes and a Brain watched the Super Bowl yesterday and noticed something missing:
Where were the troops? Where was the honoring of our brave men and women who watched the game from some makeshift building in metal chairs lined up as if they were at a elementary school assembly out in the middle of a desert thousands of miles away from their families and soft recliners?
There was no reference made to those who fight everyday for our freedoms and liberties that allow us not only to watch such a spectacle but to even put on such a show.
Michelle Malkin, who did not see the game, passes on the word.
Squiggler, commenting on my earlier post about Super Bowl MVPs Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana skipping the pre-game honoring of MVPs, noted the same thing.
The strange thing is that I watched the telecast and did not get that impression at all. As always, the broadcast crew welcomed everybody watching from Armed Forces Television and ships at sea, giving their nod to the men and women in uniform. The cameras showed the military honor guard unfurling the colors and there was sufficient reverence that I was able to make out the Marine giving the commands. I don’t know whether there was a flyover by one of the military show teams such as the Blue Angels; there often is.
Exactly now much attention is enough?
I’m a combat veteran. My dad is a combat veteran. At least one of my grandfathers was a combat veteran. But I don’t feel entitled to being singled constantly for a mention at random events. Indeed, I think it’s rather silly to begin sporting events (especially baseball games played mostly by non-citizens) with the National Anthem. It’s entertainment, not a patriotic festival.
Update: As an aside, I agree with Lisa about the horrible quality of this year’s anthem. Aaron Neville is a terrific singer. He was able to cover a George Jones original and make it better. I never understood what the fuss about Aretha Franklin was, even a hundred pounds ago. Together, though, they turned in one of the more tortured performances of the Star Bangled Banner ever.
Popular musicians almost never do the anthem well. They always want to stylize it; to make it their own. It’s an anthem, not a pop standard. One of the few stars that I can recall doing a straight rendition of the song and yet also having it unmistakable who the singer was is Jimmy Buffett, who sang it for the MLB All-Star game many years ago.
