No Disrespect...I Love the National Anthem in Chicago

I bristle when left wing lunatics try to control my behavior. I believe that individuals should have the choice to monitor their own salt intake, to smoke if they like, to run their own noncriminal businesses without the long arm of regulators getting their noses in the way, to fry their food, and to drive a gas guzzler.

Each and every one of these behaviors might or might not be damaging to those who engage in them, but as individual members of a country based on freedom, we not only should be allowed to make them for ourselves, but we must be allowed to make them for ourselves.

This cuts both ways. If I want to express myself in a way that is not popular with a certain element in this country, so what?

There is a bit of a ruckus developing these days over the singing of the National Anthem in Chicago before Blackhawks' games. There is a tradition that goes back some twenty five years that during the National Anthem fans in the crowd cheer, and clap, and celebrate the anthem in a way that is not done at any other venue.

There was a segment on Fox News this morning where they interviewed people on both sides of this issue, one person who loves the celebration surrounding the singing of the National Anthem in Chicago (Jeffrey Bartl), and another (Rob Otto) who said such celebrations are against the law. A recent article at Mlive written by Otto criticized Chicago's celebration saying "...it makes my skin crawl every time I hear it."

I can understand how a person would find the celebration annoying. My parents hate any music at church that isn't sung out of the hymnal in true a capella. Dad refuses to sing altogether as Mom mouths the words while staring at him in disgust.

I am a huge Red Wings fan, and watching the National Anthem being celebrated in Chicago doesn't make my skin crawl, it sends a chill down my spine, even on television. To see 20,000 people standing and cheering and celebrating the National Anthem of the greatest country on Earth is nothing less then spectacular as far as I'm concerned.

No one I know agrees with everything going on in this country today. No one. Yet, for a minute or two before the dropping of the puck, thousands madly celebrate our country, most of them sober, most of the respectful, and most of them believing that America is the greatest country ever conceived.

Ya, I know that some of the people there have already sucked down a couple too many beers by the time the game has started, and a few others scream and yell out of no consideration at all over our great country...they simply like to yell and scream.

I don't care. I've seen the spectacle and I've watched the appreciation of America being unashamedly expressed by a vast majority of the thousands on hand. The thrill I feel is no less important than the skin crawling felt by others. And, just for the record, I'm not going to sing out of the hymnal either, I don't care how much Mom stares.