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Art Biddle of Arvada writes:

I appreciated the RMN’s excellent editorial on how John Adams, one of our Founding Fathers, predicted that the signing of the Declaration of Independence would be marked as a day of celebration “from this time forward forevermore.” The editorial, however, did not include the important sentence from his July 3, letter to his wife, Abigail, that preceded the quote in the editorial. The quote from his letter with that sentence included follows: “It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.
The National Repertory Orchestra, at its free July 4 concert in Breckenridge, did not miss the opportunity to include the role of Providence in the birth of our country. After playing John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, it concluded the concert by leading the standing audience in the singing of God Bless America.

This letter has not been edited.

READER COMMENTS

I wonder if they didn't publish that part of the letter because of the reference to God, guns or illuminations?

Thanks for the nice letter, Art. It’s a good one.

I’m surprised, and happy, that the National Repertory Orchestra had the strength of conviction and the courage to play God Bless America in this day and age. I’ll bet it offended some people. I sort of hope so. If they had been playing in Boulder I wonder if they would have been booed off the stage.

If anyone was there and could clarify, did they just play the music or did they have someone singing the words? Just curious...

Mountain Cat sez: "If [the National Repertory Orchestra] had been playing ["God Bless America"] in Boulder I wonder if they would have been booed off the stage." Why? Don't they play it very well?

MC also sez: "I’ll bet it offended some people. I sort of hope so." Not very friendly or very patriotic. Why would any mature adult "sort of hope" such a song would offend anyone?

Come to think of it, "sort of hoping" that people would be offended by "God Bless America" isn't very godly, either.

What I wonder is if children still sing the parody of "God Bless America": "God bless my underwear/ My only pair" etc. Now that might be more likely to offend people.

" Why would any mature adult "sort of hope" such a song would offend anyone?
Posted by Hans Christian Brando on July 12, 2007 07:07 PM"

Any MATURE person wouldn't. Maybe the name should be Mountain Kitty.

Lets restore John Adams vision, elect Dr. Ron Paul President in 2008.

Dr. Ron Paul is a long way from my Jeffersonian view of the Constitution. One representative per 30,000 voters was written into law in 1776. We now have one representative per 750,000 voters. In 100 years our population has tripled, but the number of reps remains the same. I'm an unafilliated voter, who represents me from the state of Colorado????

Let's rid ourselves of Bush and Alito. Both are UCMJ-felons (illegal separation and discharge) and AWOLees and deserters. Bush is a perjury conviction give-away mood. I want to see Bush's and Alitos' perjured, forged, and falsified, military discharge documents (audit).

Well, Art, here are a couple of quotes from John Adams himself that you might enjoy - doesn't sound like he was as wedded to "God almighty" as Abigail was, and certainly not to Christianity:

The thirteen goverrnments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind.
-- John Adams, "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America" (1787-88), f

As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?
-- John Adams, letter to FA Van der Kamp, December 27, 1816

Roy,

I was not there but the letter writer said that the band did lead the audience in singing the song.

Hans Christian Brando,

I don’t know whether or not the band plays it well. But I’m pretty certain you know exactly why I questioned if they would be booed in the People Republic of Boulder.

It’s very patriotic to stand up for your country, as I am. The reason I was hoping some might be offended is that if they were, they deserve to be. Out of political and personal hatred for George Bush, many in this country have extended that hatred toward this country as a whole. One example is the woman who is at odds her home owners association for flying a US flag upside-down. Her hatred for Bush has given her the feeling that she has the right to desecrate the symbol of our nation. That definitely is not at all patriotic.

I couldn’t be godly. I am not a god. But if what you meant was that I wasn’t taking the high road in a religious aspect, I couldn’t care less. Since I am not a very religious person I am not looking at the song in a religious fashion, but rather in a patriotic fashion.

Truth,

Boy, you sure showed me, didn’t you? I just don’t know what to do now after such a thoughtful, intellectual slap-down.

But I suppose I had it coming after questioning why you don’t debate topics with substance rather than resorting to personal insults, like the one you just wrote on this topic. Your lower lip must still be quivering.

40acresandmymuleandvetbennies,

The topic could be traffic signal timing and you would come up with “Bush is a draft dodger, Bush is a deserter, and Cheney should be brought up on war crimes.” What is world are you smoking, dude?

Focus on the subject, if you can. If you cannot, lie down and take a good long nap. But first you’ll have to get that huge chip off your shoulder.

Drew,

It sounds to me like Adams was simply exercising his right to constructive criticism of his own religion. That does not mean that he was chastising the faith all together.

Wow. That Mountain Cat blows some stack, and I for one feel thoroughly told off.

As I've never been to Boulder, Colorado, I must grant that perhaps MC knows the people there better than I do. Still, I find it highly unlikely that many of its citizens would actually boo a public performance of "God Bless America." Personally, I think they'd be more likely to boo anyone who referred to their city as "People Republic of."

Nor would I presume, as Mountain Cat seems to have done, that "hatred" of President Bush automatically equalled hatred for the country. Some, in fact, would argue that it's the better part of patriotism to speak out against a bad leader who they believe is not operating in the country's best interests. I agree that Miss Upside-down Flag's protest is in poor taste, but frankly I'm less interested in symbols than in the actualities they represent. (Osama bin Laden could--but probably wouldn't--pin an little enameled American flag on his burnoose, but that wouldn't make him a good American.)

In the past few days since Independence Day, a number of letters to the editor--not in this paper, but in plenty of others-- bemoaned the fact that not many people flew flags on the 4th, and how that showed an appalling lack of patriotism. Maybe some of those people spent the day taking care of the little patch of this country they're responsible for, or performing some small service to help improve the American way of life. Maybe some Americans are so secure in their love for their country they don't feel the need to prove it to anyone else. (I loved the sentence "It's very patriotic to stand up for your country, as I am." Mountain Cat's a country?)

You don't have to be a god to behave godly, MC. If you're so patriotic, thinking kindly of your fellow Americans, and giving them the benefit of the doubt once in a while, instead of hoping they'll be offended by a song or a symbol, will do. Fly that up your flagpole and salute it.

Mountain Cat,

Just as Adams might well have been "exercising his right to constructive criticism of his own religion", so too, many here exercise THEIR RIGHTS to constructive criticism of the Bush Administration - and other Administrations as well - together with constructive criticism of Congress, and politics in general.

One does not have to "hate" in order to critique; nor is critique necessarily an indication of "hate". And, even where there may be a strong personal dislike of an individual expressed, it is not necessarly extendable to "hatred of the country".

What might be considered otherwise to be reasonable observations, and sound points and ideas, become greatly suspect when accompanied by insults directed at another's "patriotism", or with a charge that the other person has less "love of country" because of dissent with current affairs and events.

Freedom of expression is always a two way cutting sword, however much one may not like the expression that opposes his. Flags are objects, symbols, NOT themselves the substance of what they represent. And the "message" that might be contained in the way a flag is flown is just that, a "message", nothing more.

Hans,

You are completely right...you don't know Boulder at all.

Mountain Cat: "One example is the woman who is at odds her home owners association for flying a US flag upside-down. Her hatred for Bush has given her the feeling that she has the right to desecrate the symbol of our nation. That definitely is not at all patriotic."

No, it is not unpatriotic for a person to show his concern about how Bush is trying to erode what it means to be an American. What is unpatriotic is trying to erode what it means to be an American.

Flying the flag upside down is a message of distress. Many people are distressed at what Bush is trying to do to American ideals. Rather than dishonoring the flag, that is her way of honoring it, by criticizing the efforts of the Bush administration to demean what the flag stands for.

I would not use that means to signal my distress. But that does not mean that I consider people who would use it as unpatriotic.

"Hans, You are completely right...you don't know Boulder at all."

Nope. Sure don't. But if forced to judge and generalize a city's entire population w/o any corroborative evidence one way or t'other, I'd rather believe there are far more nice, polite people in Boulder than creeps--if only because also they're part of this vast, complicated, fascinating country that the "Look at me! I'm waving my flag!" self-professed patriots claim to love so much.

Happy Bastille Day, everybody. The French flag is red, white, and blue, too.

Atheist, conservative, anti-bush(shrub), patriotic, troop supporter, anti-Iraq war, and Native American..

i am all of these things, it is possible to be conservative and an atheist and anti-shrub and still be patriotic. i love my country and will fight to the death if we ever go to war on our soil, cause only then is our freedom in danger, we are not at war with Iraq for our freedoms, the only war where our freedoms were ever in danger was the civil war and the revolutionary war. since then no country has ever attacked us on American soil , not even pearl harbor, Hawaii was not annexed into the union on that date, i do believe we should bring our soldiers home and rebuild America from the ground up and close our borders and kick out the illegals.....and last but not least, rebuild the government from the ground up

America needs a reboot ...

your friendly atheist ( Hoimaha C. )

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