Controversy after singer substitutes 'black national anthem' for 'Star-Spangled Banner'

Yesterday in Denver, Rene Marie chose deceit to make a political statement over honesty and integrity. Check out the following post from http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/07/controversy-aft.html. I’ve posted the lyrics to the song at the bottom so you can make an evaluation for yourself – certainly not patriotic to America (look at the last line.)

My recommendation… be honest; be forthright, act with integrity if you want your political voice to have validity – even if it runs contrary to public opinion – integrity matters. And above all, celebrate the greatest nation on God’s green earth… the United States of America and those who paid for the freedom you enjoy that allows a person to be disrespectful and dissent!

Happy 4^th of July.

Lee

Controversy after singer substitutes 'black national anthem' for 'Star-Spangled Banner'

A singer surprised dignitaries by singing Lift Every Voice and Sing, also known as the "black national anthem," to the tune of The Star-Spangled Banner during the mayor's State of the City address yesterday in Denver.

Rene Marie, who was introduced by City Council president Michael Hancock to perform the national anthem, says she made the switch without informing the mayor's office.

Marie tells The Denver Post she decided to switch the lyrics months ago and will no longer sing the national anthem because she sometimes feels like a foreigner in the USA.

"When I decided to sing my version, what was going on in my head was: 'I want to express how I feel about living in the United States, as a black woman, as a black person,'" Marie tells KUSA-TV, a fellow Gannett property.

Lift Every Voice and Sing was first performed in 1900 to commemorate almost 40 years of freedom for blacks in America.

Mayor John Hickenlooper says he discussed the situation with Marie following her performance. "She was very apologetic," he tells the Post. "She meant no disrespect, and she was singing an artistic expression she thought represented love and hope for her country."

Marie tells KUSA-TV she has no regrets.

The Rocky Mountain News says the City Council president has been receiving hate mail, even though he had never met Marie before he introduced her at the State of the City event.

"I'm getting — as if I made the decision to do this — I'm receiving a lot of hate mail," he says. "I've received quite a few e-mails that are quite nasty."

LIFT EV'RY VOICE AND SING
also known as "The Black National Anthem"
by James Weldon Johnson

Lift ev'ry voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring.
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise,
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might,
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee,
Shadowed beneath thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.