Debate Over Anthem
Debate Over Anthem
Document 029.0.8.1 # 20
Debate over anthem surprises principal.
By TODD HARTMAN, Scripps-McClatchy Western Service, June 07, 2002.
DENVER - Poudre High School's decision to play the World anthem for its
graduation ceremony sparked an angry reaction from a parent who wanted to
hear the national anthem and stirred a dust-up on talk radio this week.
Gail Wagner, whose daughter graduated May 24, wrote a letter to the school
principal, the district superintendent and the Denver Rocky Mountain News
calling the anthem "an insipid little song about a world of peace and love"
and an insult to America.
She said it took the place of the national anthem.
It did not, said Poudre High Principal Sandra Lundt.
Lundt said she was surprised to find the decision scolded on Mike Rosen's
KOA talk show and Peter Boyles' KHOW show Thursday morning. Lundt said the
Fort Collins school has never played the national anthem at its graduation.
"This was never meant to take the place of the national anthem," Lundt
said. "It's an anthem that really celebrates every nation."
Wagner's husband, Fred, and daughter, Erin, also opposed the playing of the
world anthem. Erin said she was surprised "The Star Spangled Banner" wasn't
played.
"It didn't make much sense," Erin said. "We live in America, so they
should have played it. I guess I would say I was offended."
Lundt said the school's senior class council, a group of 15 to 20 students,
participated in the decision to play the world anthem. The school's
orchestra, band and choir teamed to perform the piece.
The senior class council "was very excited about the opportunity," Lundt
said, noting that one of the people who helped promote broader performance
of the anthem, Ed Goodman, is a 1973 graduate of Poudre High.
The world anthem was conceived in 1996 and completed by 2000. The idea
behind the piece, according to the Web site
http://www.worldanthem.org is
this: "We believe there is a wonderful way to bring a message of hope,
healing, peace and unification to all people through the universal language
of music ... to give the world a gift, to bring about a symbol for peace
and a common spirit of trust toward the idea of one people, one world."
Its creation, even those involved acknowledge, borders on the bizarre.Music
from the anthems of every country in the world were combined in a computer.
Using musicology software, a blended creation emerged. The
same technique was used to produce the lyrics, according to Goodman.
"This is not two bars of 'The Star Spangled Banner,' then a bar of 'O
Canada,'" Goodman said.
"It's more like if you took all the melodies, harmonies, rhythms and tempos
and somehow were able to average them. ... It's very, very sophisticated;
it took years of work to accomplish."
This means, Goodman said, that the piece wasn't composed by any one person
or any one nation. "The point of it was to have one song that all nations
could share," he said.
The piece has a significant history in Colorado. It was heard for the
first time at the Denver Millennium Celebration on Dec. 31, 2000, at the
stroke of midnight in conjunction with fireworks, according to historians of
the anthem. In November 2001, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra provided the
first live performance of the piece.
Goodman said that even Air Force's Band of the Rockies is taken with the
piece and arranging its own version. It's slated to be played at an
upcoming global peace conference in Croatia and at a ceremony celebrating
the 40th anniversary of the Peace Corps this summer.
The Wagners are not impressed.
"No matter how much the principal gushed over the privilege of being one of
the first to hear this piece performed, we did not feel privileged or find
it inspirational, heartwarming or moving," Gail Wagner wrote to the
News.
029.0.8.1 # 20 End
"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary
Americans." Comrade Pres W. J. Klinton. USAToday. 11 Mar 93. Pg 2A. "You
know the one thing that's wrong with this country? Everyone gets a chance to
have their fair say." Comrade Pres W. J. Klinton. 28 May 93. The Courtyard.
City Hall, Philadelphia. "I'm not going to have some reporters pawing
through our papers. We are the President." Comrade Hillary Diane Klinton.