After dedicating a whole editorial to the topic of singing the anthem not performing it in the February 24 edition of the Humboldt Journal it seems the issue has been opened back up.
During the singing of the national anthem at the Major League Baseball All Star game on Jul. 12, Canadian Band The Tenors sang the Canadian National Anthem.
In the middle of the anthem band member Remigio Pereira changed the lyrics from “with glowing hearts we see thee rise. The true north strong and free” to “we’re all brothers and sisters. All lives matter to the great” then he proceeded to hold up a sign that said “all lives matter.”
Wrong move Pereira. The Canadian National Anthem is an important symbol of Canada much like the Star Spangled Banner is to the United States and the singing of the national anthem is not the place to include your political believes.
The uproar from the statement has been great and it is great to see. Citizens of any country whether Canadian, American, British, Italian, German, you name it should not stand for behavior like that.
The anthem is a sacred piece of ones nationality and the fact that someone feels it is the appropriate place to make a political statement is sad.
The Tenors have since issued a statement saying that Pereira acted on his own and if this is true his suspension from the band until further notice is the right course of action.
His actions reflect poorly on everyone involved. The Band. The individuals. Major League Baseball. Everyone.
When I wrote my last editorial on the subject I received great feedback saying that we should be blaming the organizers for hiring a band/musician that did not sing the anthem the way it was written and it is true.
But in this case it sounds like Pereira acted on his own and it was not something that was planned. If that is true it probably came as a big surprise to the organizers that this occurred and I am sure they were not too impressed.
It is time we stop using the anthem for anything more than as a way to induce national pride.
So artists please, I beg you from now on when you think about changing the words to the anthem think again.
It is neither the time nor the place for that.
