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Maybe Our Champions Are Humming

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 16, 2008

If they gave medals for anthem singing, U.S. athletes wouldn't get any. The Chinese would dominate because they all seem to know their national song cold. They sing the words with full-throated abandon, like so many robots with fresh batteries.

Our athletes seem unsure of what to do when the "The Star Spangled Banner" plays for a gold-medal winning performance. Some try to move their lips, but usually give up somewhere between "whose broad stripes" and "o'er the ramparts." It's a tough tune to remember.

But even with points added for difficulty, other nations beat the tights off us in singing.

It's certainly not that foreign songs are better. The Chinese anthem calls for "millions of hearts with one mind." Vietnam's anthem boasts that the "path to glory is built by the bodies of our foes." Australia's is feeble: "Advance Australia Fair!" And Uruguay's lyrics include the threat, "our nation or the grave."

Our song has its challenges, but it has a winning climax: "The land of the free and the home of the brave."

What a shame our young people are no longer brave enough to sing it.

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