Sporting Events Trivialize Anthem Sing It Selectively Beautiful Song Should Be Saved For Special Times.

How did I get myself into this?

It happened at The Spokesman-Review’s weekly editorial board meeting, where members of the board sit around a table and hash out the pressing (and not-so-pressing) issues of the week; where we decide what subjects deserve our attention, and what positions we’ll take on them.

Denver Nuggets guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and his short-lived National Anthem protest came up and I happened to mutter, “I don’t think they should play the National Anthem at sporting events at all.”

That did it. I was dead meat. The rest of the board pounced, leaving me to justify my un-American, flag-hating views.

Let me just say up front that I love the National Anthem. It’s actually one of my favorite songs. I sing it - out loud when I’m alone, to myself when someone else is in the car - every time I drive to Seattle, usually at the summit of Snoqualmie Pass.

But I don’t think it belongs at sporting events.

If I sound a little defensive about this, it’s because I am, and have every reason to be. A person can’t voice an opposing opinion about the flag or The Star Spangled Banner these days without being branded a heretic. But those same politicians (Pat Buchanan, to name one) who decry commercialization of the flag are seen regularly wearing flag hats, ties and cuff links when it suits them. Tell me, how is that better than flag T-shirts and underwear?

But back to sports. You can’t tell me the slouching, scratching athletes lined up before the game are thinking about America’s values when the strains of the anthem begin. Are those Baltimore Orioles fans celebrating their freedom or their team when they scream out “O” half-way through the song? What sort of patriotic chills are running up the spines of the guys standing in the beer lines at hockey games?

Be truthful. Playing the National Anthem at sporting events trivializes the meaning and spirit of the song. Pretending that those games are some sort of representation of America’s values cheapens its meaning.

The National Anthem, sung well, is a beautiful, haunting song and should be reserved for those times when it’s truly representative of the best our country has to offer - at the Olympics, for example.

The bonus? We wouldn’t be subjected to Roseanne’s screaming rendition of the anthem ever again.

, DataTimes MEMO: See opposing view under the headline: Our anthem unites us as Americans

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