Some musical stuff, and emus

[bunrab]

So, the Army Band's big 85th anniversary concert ended with the chorale exhorting the audience to sing along with them in "God Bless America." We stood, because we respect other people, but did not sing along, because we don't believe in a god, let alone one that has a particular favoritism for America. But it sat in the back of my mind, and what came percolating up a few days later, when I woke up this morning, was:

Good is America, land that I love
We admire, and will fight for,
The rights and the freedoms we have.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam,
Good is America, my home sweet home.
Not perfect, but available to work on. I've sent it to Dan Barker at FFRF 'cause that seems like someone who could polish it up. (We're longtime FFRF members.)

Other news from that concert: the Army Chorale is changing its name and mission; they soon will be called DownRange, and they'll be doing mostly soul/R&B/do-wop with a small jazz-band type instrumental back-up. They gave us a demo, and it was pretty funny, with four lead singers all African-American, and 4 pasty white people doing the do-wop background. Anyway, it's clearly a move to address today's enlisted force, which is a different mix of ethnicity and background than WW II's enlisted force was. Look for them to come to a USO concert near you!

Other weird news: last Friday, someone released a bunch of emus in downtown Baltimore. When the police and animal control came to round them up, homeless people in the area told them that a van had pulled up, opened the back, and shoved out the emus. So there they were, abandoned, dazed and confused. Some were not in good condition. The article didn't say how many, but I gathered there were at least half a dozen, and maybe as many as a dozen. They were taken to shelters and farms in the surrounding rural counties. I know winos is probably an incorrect term these days, but still, can't you see it, the winos wondering, is this a hallucination, or are there really five-foot-tall birds suddenly standing on my street corner?

Comments

[stevenehrbar.livejournal.com]

I note the song doesn't actually assume God favors America; it's a petition to God to bless and guide America.

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

In the context of the rest of the concert, including speeches by assorted high army brass, it was clear that they, at least, assumed god favors America.

As it happens, Irving Berlin did not believe in "God" although he was Jewish.