Americans love music. Our music is played and sang around the world. So it strikes me as a little strange when I see so many Americans who can’t sing our National Anthem correctly. Every citizen should learn and sing our anthem and sing it loudly.I don’t hear it so much since 9/11, but years ago there was a movement to change the National Anthem to God Bless America. It is a beautiful song; easy to learn and sing. It is a song of peace and not war. However, it’s not our National Anthem. We certainly know a lot of songs that are difficult to sing. Many of us learned our high school alma mater and even our college alma mater. Why can’t we learn our National Anthem?My first assigned in the Army was with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, NC. I ended serving twice with the 82nd. The Division song was (is?) The All-American Soldier, an easy song to learn, sing and enjoy. It’s a rousing fight song. There are parts that are yelled; “Hey! Hey!” and “Let's Go!” I served in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division. Their song was Rendezvous with Destiny, a hard song to sing. It’s a slower paced song.Later I served with the 3rd Infantry Division in Germany. Their song was A Dog Face Soldier, a fun song to sing. My unit was to participate in a joint ceremony with a German unit. We were directed to learn the A Dog Face Soldier, because at some part we would have to sing it. We were also told that the Germans would sing, and they do love to sing. All the company commanders rushed to the PX and purchased records and tapes of A Dog Face Soldier. We spent hours trying to teach our soldiers the words and melody. At the designated time, the band struck up A Dog Face Soldier and we mumbled and fumbled through the words. Then the Germans sang – loud and clear. They shamed us. It was embarrassing. I shudder to think how we would have done if we had to sing our National Anthem. Why do we have this problem? The Germans, French and most other nationalities have no problem singing their National Anthem. We have only one National Anthem. Learn it and sing it and sing it loudly with pride.
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For e-books by me, visit http://smashwords.com/profile/view/monteranderson.
Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/monteranderson
Follow my blog at http://monteranderson-author.com or http://monteranderson.wordpress.com.
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