Posted on 04/05/2012 12:51:42 PM PDT by raccoonradio
BELLINGHAM (CBS) – A presentation at an elementary school in Bellingham will go on next week following a controversy in which the words of a patriotic song were changed.
Students at Stall Brook Elementary are doing a project on the 50 states and they planned to sing two songs at an assembly April 12. One was to be a tune about the states, and the other was the popular 1984 Lee Greenwood song “God Bless The USA.”
But someone changed the chorus of Greenwood’s song to “We love the USA” for the assembly.
That didn’t go over well with parents, who complained.
So, school officials decided there would be no singing at the assembly.
Lee Greenwood himself heard about the controversy and issued this statement:
“Maybe the school should have asked the parents their thoughts before changing the lyrics to the song. They could have even asked the writer of the song, which I of course would have said you can’t change the lyrics at all or any part of the song. The most important word in the whole piece of music is the word God, which is also in the title God Bless The USA. We can’t take God out of the song, we can’t take God out of The Pledge of Allegiance, we can’t take God off of the American currency. Let us also remember, the phrase God Bless the USA has a very important meaning for those in the military and their families, as well as new citizens coming to our Country. The song is played at every naturalization ceremony behind The National Anthem. If the song is good enough to played and performed in its original setting under those circumstances, it surely should be good enough for our children.”
Then on Thursday, Superintendent Edward Fleury issued a statement on the school website announcing yet another change.
The songs are back in and and they will sing Greenwood’s song the way it was written.
“Students will be allowed to sing or not sing the words “God Bless the USA” as they sing in celebration of their acquired knowledge. No other words will be substituted. We believe the use of the word God is acceptable in patriotic songs. The district has no intent to censor any patriotic songs. We are certainly sorry if this approach was perhaps considered as disrespectful. That was never the intent,” Fleury wrote in the letter to parents.
“It’s unfortunate that a small mis-understanding has snowballed to this level,” Bellingham School Committee member Cheryl Gray told WBZ NewsRadio 1030 Thursday.
“The Pledge of Allegiance is said daily in our classrooms, so, personally, I see no reason to have changed the lyrics of the song.”
Gray said she does not know why the lyrics were changed in the first place.
Actually the Pledge of Allegiance was written without the words “under God”. God was inserted into the pledge.
You can easily tell because it throws off the cadence. The Knights of Columbus led the charge to have “under God” added to the Pledge of Allegiance.
That makes me laugh.
I harken back to watching my oldest son through his kindegarten and gradeschool years. Up on stage, "forced" to sing all of the songs for whatever performance.
Despite my wife's admonitions - I don't think he ever moved his lips once.
Just stood on stage with his hands in his pockets - refusing to sing
Point is - I think kids already "sing" or "don't sing" what they want.
The real question is why the need to remove the word God.
Pretty telling.
Hmmmm - sounds like somebody got their hindquarters singed just a bit.
4- The school is based in America.
BRAVO!
Republicans trundle their kids off to government schools, secondarys and on to universities and have the temerity to wonder what the hell is wrong with our country.
It will NEVER stop. It will keep coming. We have ceded God and country to the public schools, to John Locke, and the whole cabal of godless who now cooperate with the take down of our country.
We teach what we tolerate.
We need that teacher’s name and serial number. :)
Stop the madness.
Great idea, TCM.
Treat them like child predators. Map it up.
Past time to play hardball and get defiant. They have been handing it to us for decades, free of charge.
Time for the same accountability, responsibility and consequences that they preach to these kids. IMHO.
“The Pledge of Allegiance is said daily in our classrooms, so, personally, I see no reason to have changed the lyrics of the song.”
Gray said she "does not know why the lyrics were changed in the first place.”
In other words -
~We got caught.~
In other, other words - it was Gray's idea.
The school board changed their mind and weren’t going to have any songs played.
The school board then changed it’s mind again and will go back to songs with the correct wording.
Bizarre people.
Well, it does fit better in the Gettysburg address,from which it was taken. When the atheists get in power they will cover over both speeches in Lincoln’s little house, it and the 2nd Inaugural.
There is no institution more political than the public schools. How many people know this, that the reigning philosophy in those schools is John Dewey’s instrumentalism, which eschews all absolutes.
Bullsh*t. You communists got caught, and that is the ONLY thing you are sorry about. America has your number, Massachusetts.
Even worse; we have been PAYING for it via back-breaking, confiscatory-level property taxes.
Amen.
Bizzaro is right! Bizzaro mind benders for the most part.
The kids are seeing this confusion, and we know who the author of confusion is, actually. He has a name.
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