THE PACK, THE PEAS AND THE NATIONAL ANTHEM

By Marilyn M. Barnewall
February 9, 2011
NewsWithViews.com

The Super Bowl game was great – what a joy to watch Aaron Rodgers so effectively replace Brett Favre and come into his own! Favre once said he wasn’t taking Rodgers under his wing and that Rodgers would have to figure it out on his own. It wasn’t his job, Favre said, to mentor Rodgers.

It’s probably a good thing that Favre went diva on this issue because Aaron Rodgers managed to do something Favre has never done: Win the Most Valuable Player award for the game. Perhaps Favre could stand a little mentoring from Rodgers? Many people don’t know that Rodgers is the Packers’ Team Captain, too.

Though the game was enjoyable, the more football game halftimes I watch, the more convinced I am that people who plan these things have no common sense. And, though I heard the pre-game show about the history of our Declaration of Independence was excellent (I missed it), the pre-game singing left a great deal to be desired.

It’s usually Super Bowl halftimes that disgust me. This one didn’t do anything to impress or entertain me, but it wasn’t as tasteless as the Janet Jackson boob-mobile in 2004. This year, the most disgusting thing was Christina Aguilera’s butchering of our National Anthem.

I once sang for a living with the Air Force Academy Dance Band when it played at the Lowry Air Force Base Officer’s Club on weekends (before the Academy moved to Colorado Springs). I understand the difference between being a song stylist and a crooner. Even more important, I understand the difference between singing a hymn or an anthem and a pop tune. Our National Anthem is a hymn. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of hearing pop singers stylize the National Anthem of this Great Nation in an attempt to make it sounds like “them.â€