A Thin Line Between Love and Hate…

I love our National Anthem.
It’s not the prettiest song in the world to sing, but I’m moved whenever I hear it. Tears even well up in my eyes sometimes—I’m not afraid to admit it. I always sing along and I NEVER start clapping before the song is concluded. (I really hate it when people do that at sporting events, by the way.)
Thanks to my friend Scott Lounsbury, it was the subject of my annual Independence Day email in 2003. These were my thoughts on July 4, 2003:

Don’t just sing a patriotic song. Go out and sing your National Anthem. “The Star Spangled Banner” is not a song that belongs solely to the beginning of sporting events, nor is it to be sung only by multi-millionaire divas and pop-stars. It’s not restricted to the pomp and pageantry of the Super Bowl or the World Series. It’s YOUR National Anthem, and it’s intent is to be sung by all Americans, regardless of whether they could hit the broadside of a barn with a note or not. (It’s the only song of a nation whose tune is derived from an English drinking song, if you think about it.) It’s there for us all to sing whenever it’s played because it belongs to all of us, and you don’t have to be the world’s best singer to join in. It’s not a privilege to sing it, it’s a right and a civic duty. Every American should know the words and tune. For those who don’t know, the best way for them to learn is to hear others. Sing it as loudly and as proudly as you can.

May it please the Court of Public Opinion and we shall stipluate that my feelings about the National Anthem are entered into the record.
Let’s fast-forward to present day, now…
I was catching up on the feeds that download in my RSS reader and I came across a posting over on the Real Clear Politics Blog titled, “Why The Right Hates The Left,” which links to an article out at the (dreadful) Huffington Post by Emily Weinstein. Here’s an excerpt of the Weinstein column:

Last weekend I did something I haven’t done in a long time. Something I swore I’d never do again. Something I’m deeply ashamed of.
I stood during the singing of the national anthem.
…
I won’t stand for the American flag because I won’t stand for what is done in its name. I won’t stand for the current war in Iraq, I won’t stand for the last war in Iraq. I won’t stand for all the wars before that. I won’t stand for its selectively faulty elecotral process and I won’t stand for its unelected, renegade government. I won’t stand for its medieval attitude towards sexuality and privacy, for its violent misinterpretation of Christianity, for its refusal to deal sanely with AIDS and all other global health crises, for its environmentally suicidal stance on climate change, for the hypocrisy of its practices, for the torture of its prisoners, for its executions and its drug wars and its oil wars. I won’t stand for any of these things, and I won’t stand for the United States of America, or its flag or its anthem, until they change.

So, here we have another vitriolic screed from an America-loathing liberal where they blame Republicans for everything from religion to sex to the environment to drug wars and every single thing in between. It’s almost like playing that “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game. If you let the Libs go on long enough they’ll find a way to blame George W. Bush for the founding of the United States of America in the first place.
All the Libs have is their hatred.
I’m all for intelligent debate of issues. I really am. This, though, is just absolutely pathetic. I have no idea who Emily Weinstein is, nor do I have anything against her. However, I do think her to be nothing more than a spoiled brat who has no sense of what freedom is really about.
I do love the National Anthem and I do love America—regardless of who occupies the Oval Office. It’s just pitiful that the party of “progressive thought,” “diversity” and “tolerance” can’t be any of those things with anyone who isn’t a Liberal.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. She’s exercising her freedom of speech. Well, Weinstein has absolutely no concept of why she has the freedoms she does and I’m willing to bet she has nothing but contempt for the people who have paid the ultimate price so that she could write this crap.
Weinstein is absolutely entitled to exercise her freedom of speech, political or otherwise. However, much like my stance on flag burning, I can only hope that when Miss Weinstein decides she “won’t stand for it” that there’s an entire platoon of United States Marines standing directly behind her to point out the error of her ways.
I betcha she stands then.
William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com