I've researched this time and again and cannot come up with the particular person. It wasn't too long after the terrorism of 9/11, maybe a year, that a famous American rock star returned from touring in Europe. As he travelled around the United States after being out of the country for a while he was amazed at how many American flags were being flown in front of individual homes. I cannot remember his exact quote but in essence, seeing so many flags flown.....seeing such evidence of nationalism....of love of country....well, it made him ill! I think that his remark made me ill, for I may not remember the quote verbatim but I have never forgotten his admittance of revulsion at seeing the Stars And Stripes flown from so many homes!
Let me set the scene for you that I experienced tonight. The setting was a church....in a fairly conservative community...a community where even today many American flags are flown on the front porches of people's homes.....mine being one of them. It was a benefit where classical music artists, both professional and students of the genre, donated their time and extraordinary talents with the proceeds in the form of donations going to a very good cause. Just about all of the people were seated and chatting with neighbors and friends who sat around them. Two very young, pretty and talented girls set the ambiance for such an event by playing their violins very softly. So softly that the music was barely discernible over the conversations and laughter.
They played one piece after another and included in this was the Star-Spangled Banner. One by one the people in the audience turned to the two young violinists and stood up until all in attendance were standing. The girls must have thought that the main concert was beginning and they stopped playing. The audience laughed at this to ease the violinist's embarrassment and someone must have told the girls to begin playing again. They did and we softly sang along... the words penned by Francis Scott Key during another period when our nation was under attack. It was an emotional moment for me, a stark change of tempo and attentiveness, so natural, yet so almost out of place today depending on the venue, an audience picking up on the faint notes of our national anthem and immediately standing. It was a beautiful moment really, and an encouraging one!
