Posted on 06/08/2002 12:09:16 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Debate over anthem surprises principal
By TODD HARTMAN
Scripps-McClatchy Western Service
June 07, 2002
DENVER - Poudre High School's decision to play the World anthem for its graduation ceremony sparked an angry reaction from a parent who wanted to hear the national anthem and stirred a dust-up on talk radio this week.
Gail Wagner, whose daughter graduated May 24, wrote a letter to the school principal, the district superintendent and the Denver Rocky Mountain News calling the anthem "an insipid little song about a world of peace and love" and an insult to America.
She said it took the place of the national anthem.
It did not, said Poudre High Principal Sandra Lundt.
Lundt said she was surprised to find the decision scolded on Mike Rosen's KOA talk show and Peter Boyles' KHOW show Thursday morning. Lundt said the Fort Collins school has never played the national anthem at its graduation.
"This was never meant to take the place of the national anthem," Lundt said. "It's an anthem that really celebrates every nation."
Wagner's husband, Fred, and daughter, Erin, also opposed the playing of the world anthem. Erin said she was surprised "The Star Spangled Banner" wasn't played.
"It didn't make much sense," Erin said. "We live in America, so they should have played it. I guess I would say I was offended."
Lundt said the school's senior class council, a group of 15 to 20 students, participated in the decision to play the world anthem. The school's orchestra, band and choir teamed to perform the piece.
The senior class council "was very excited about the opportunity," Lundt said, noting that one of the people who helped promote broader performance of the anthem, Ed Goodman, is a 1973 graduate of Poudre High.
The world anthem was conceived in 1996 and completed by 2000. The idea behind the piece, according to the Web site www.worldanthem.org, is this: "We believe there is a wonderful way to bring a message of hope, healing, peace and unification to all people through the universal language of music ... to give the world a gift, to bring about a symbol for peace and a common spirit of trust toward the idea of one people, one world."
Its creation, even those involved acknowledge, borders on the bizarre. Music from the anthems of every country in the world were combined in a computer. Using musicology software, a blended creation emerged. The same technique was used to produce the lyrics, according to Goodman.
"This is not two bars of 'The Star Spangled Banner,' then a bar of 'O Canada,'" Goodman said.
"It's more like if you took all the melodies, harmonies, rhythms and tempos and somehow were able to average them. ... It's very, very sophisticated; it took years of work to accomplish."
This means, Goodman said, that the piece wasn't composed by any one person or any one nation. "The point of it was to have one song that all nations could share," he said.
The piece has a significant history in Colorado. It was heard for the first time at the Denver Millennium Celebration on Dec. 31, 2000, at the stroke of midnight in conjunction with fireworks, according to historians of the anthem. In November 2001, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra provided the first live performance of the piece.
Goodman said that even Air Force's Band of the Rockies is taken with the piece and arranging its own version. It's slated to be played at an upcoming global peace conference in Croatia and at a ceremony celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Peace Corps this summer.
The Wagners are not impressed.
"No matter how much the principal gushed over the privilege of being one of the first to hear this piece performed, we did not feel privileged or find it inspirational, heartwarming or moving," Gail Wagner wrote to the News.
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The World Anthem May we sing loud, To fire our hopes and joys, And let us now, Believe in trust, Eternally for all. All the winds, And all the storms, All the passions, Be calm. Let the earth's foundations rise, To call us all as one. This song we sing, To lead us through the night, To see us through, The trying times, To a future bright. Throughout the world, We sing our praise to peace, Our bond of love, Will serve us true for, All as one for all. |
Their teachers must be so proud of them.
Playing this world anthem shows a lack of focus, a lack of acknowledgement of where they live and who they are.
They may as well play something called, "An Ode to the Galaxy."
It seems that it was not "replacing" the national anthem because they had not been playing THAT for many years, or ever. The children were excited to be participating? Sure, especially if they did not get to play at all before. But, we know how school works. The teacher comes in and says, "We have an opportunity to participate in this ceremony if we play this new anthem. And it was created in this unique way, using computers and stuff." What child will stand up and say, "Well, why aren't we practicing to play our National Anthem also?"
How about "A Celebration of Sand"?
How about ``Onward Dimwit Soldiers?''
Wait...I thought this was the World Anthem:
I'd like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love,
Grow apple trees and honey bees, and snow white turtle doves.
I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony,
I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.
?????
I'd like to give the world a hug
And tell it jokes and stuff
And pull its pants down to its knees
And chase it through the rough
Then tie it up with bonds and straps
And search its purse for change
Then leave it out at Moose Grin Hall
With our cousin who's deranged ...
When I was a junior in HS, the seniors stole all the bells the last week of school, and returned them after graduation.
When I was a senior, we jammed the keyholes on the classroom doors, forcing the school to hire a locksmith while the students got a half day off.
The next year, the seniors chopped off all the bushes, built a masonry wall across the main hallway, and stopped up the third floor science lab sinks with the water on. When the principal arrived the next Monday, there was a cascading waterfall coming down the stair.
They caught the perps that year and they paid restitution (~$20000).
LOL! Television crew.
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