On February 4, while staying warm and away from the snowstorm, I decided to peruse my Twitter feed. I came across a tweet from the Creightonian Opinion saying, “Sing-along during national anthem is disrespectful.” When I saw this, I ultimately had a feeling of whom the columnist was talking about.
The columnist, Austin [Spillane], talked about how he believes that the pep band singing along to the national anthem is being disrespectful to both the moment and the guest musician who is performing it.
For anyone who does not know, I am an active member in the pep band, and yes, I do sing along with the national anthem at every game that I attend. To me, the pep band does not sing along to be disrespectful, but to display our own sense of patriotism.
As Austin mentioned, the national anthem being sung before sporting events is a tradition, and resembles that we are united as a nation. It is a time where we, as Americans, can come together and celebrate our country and our heritage as members of the stadium and members of this land. With this understanding, it makes sense as to why we should be able to sing along with the national anthem without it being disrespectful.
Living in a united nation means that we have rights, including freedom of speech. Singing should pertain to this category, because what Austin is implying is that the pep band, which also includes the rest of the audience who sings along, should be completely silent during the performance, which takes away their right.
If someone wants to respect their country through silence, that’s a different story, but no person in the audience should feel that they have to be silent during the performance, nor should they only feel the need to sing along after a national tragedy. People in the audience should feel welcomed to sing along with the national anthem at anytime, and at any sporting event.
Sure, not many of us in the pep band will ever have the opportunity to be one of those performers, and sing alone in front of thousands of people. We understand that the song is difficult to perform, and we do not hold ourselves accountable to having the capability to sing the song perfectly. Our point, as the band, to joining in is not to distract the performer or disrespect him or her in any way. It is to simply express our patriotism and the unity of our nation through our voices.
Don’t let the national anthem be just a moment for one person to shine, let it be a moment for yourself and others to express your patriotism, whether that is through listening or singing along. To me, that is truly American.