Jamie Foxx is a pile of human garbage who should be ostracized from our entire zeitgeist. He won’t be, of course, but he should be.
Two weekends ago, Foxx butchered, altered and changed America’s National Anthem prior to the Manny Pacquiao/Floyd Mayweather fight. That, in and of itself is unforgiveable, lest there be an amazingly unpredictable excuse followed by a massive apology. Butchering the National Anthem is an avoidable mistake if you hold the responsibility of performing it with the reverence that you should (which, of course is the problem; few do so). Mistakes, however, are forgivable if, for example, we find out after the fact that a technical problem made it nearly impossible for the performer to hear what we call “the mix,” thus straining the ability of the most talented performer to follow music they can’t even hear . Such a mistake would explain problems with tempo and tune, though it certainly wouldn’t explain an altering of the words or meaning of the Anthem. Such mistakes are almost completely and entirely non-existent.
Beyond such a rare possibility, those who have the audacity, arrogance and disrespect as to believe that they can or should alter the National Anthem in any way are reprehensible human beings in my eyes.
Jamie Foxx, following his despicable performance told the Hollywood Reporter that “We had a little bit of a situation with our ear pieces. The [ear] pack actually dropped off, so I couldn’t, you know . . . I can’t hear what’s playing…so I just had to go on my own. Hopefully they understand.”
Hmmm…Almost forgivable, although it fails to explain the addition of “Hallelujah,” at the end. I tell ya what, Jamie…I’m going to give you a pass on this one assuming the very next words out of your mouth are something like “with that said, I take full responsibility for the poor presentation of the greatest nation on Earth’s anthem which I was asked to present in one of the most watched sporting events of modern times, thus by extension, I was representing my nation. I fully understand why people are so upset and I humbly ass for forgiveness.”
Go:
“It’s just the National Anthem,” Foxx then said.
That’s right…it’s just the National Anthem. It’s just a stupid song about a stupid country that we stupidly sing before we play games. That’s your modern day American and if you think for a minute that Foxx does not represent a large, if not majority opinion of citizens in America, you are delusional.
Meanwhile, while discussing a new viral trend of flag desecration last week a maggot wanted me to explain how I could support someone’s right to burn an American Flag, yet become so enraged at the public destruction of the National Anthem.
We begin with the famous speech from the fictional president Andrew Shepherd in the movie “The American President:”
America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.” You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms.
And we end with this obvious distinction; America is a nation literally built on questioning and standing up to authority. We rewrite history constantly to suit our emotions but the fact cannot be changed that in 1776 the American colonists had, by all accounts, the second greatest quality of life on Earth. Only the English lived better. The British Empire, unlike most ruling regimes before and after it, treated its subjects quite well. When America stood up the King, it was not rising up against some tyrannical dictator. It was saying “second best isn’t good enough.” If someone in America today believes that their nation is less than the best it can be, and if that person believes that by exercising his or her right to burn the symbol of their nation to bring attention to their cause is the best way to begin to effect change, then they must, by definition be allowed to do so. Similarly, if someone just hates America and wants to burn its flag because they think it’s stupid, they must be allowed to do so. It is that strength of conviction of our nation’s strength that says “we are more than just that person’s narrow minded treatment of our symbol.”
Those who agree to publicly perform the National Anthem enter into an implied contract with the citizenry that they will treat the song with reverence and perform it with respect. If a singer were to state publicly, prior to singing the Anthem “I am going to sing the Anthem in a style that protests the country,” and the hosting event were to allow that person to perform, I would fully support such an occurrence. I would then work as hard as I could to let the performer and the event hosts know how I felt, hoping that millions would follow me.
Those of you angry with flag burners misunderstand the nation, its’ meaning and your power.
The current viral sensation of flag desecration began when an American Veteran interrupted a flag desecration ceremony, totally willing to go to jail for her actions. That’s someone who understands her power and is willing to accept the consequences of her choices.
As we said last week, if Americans truly are angry over the current trend, they’ll start a counter-trend of flag reverence. But they won’t, and that’s what angers most of you. While you sit on your sofa and get angry at flag desecrators.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have multiple Jamie Foxx DVD’s to throw away.
