Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA"

[Deleted]

How can this be an appropriate song to play at a public school?



Big City

As Issue Divides School, Congressman Takes a Side


Josh Haner/The New York Times

Representative Bob Turner, center in rear, singing “God Bless the U.S.A.” with students from Public School 90 in Brooklyn. Its principal had barred the country song from a kindergarten ceremony as too adult.

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

Published: June 19, 2012


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Political opportunism, at its most benign, gives us bemusement and exasperation; at the more extreme end of things it inspires a wish for high-grade exfoliants to scrub away all the contact grease and grime.



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Josh Haner/The New York Times

A counterprotest against the Turner rally included Dina Rosado, the PTA president, her son Devin and her husband, Jorge Rosado.


It was toward this end of the scale that Representative Bob Turner, who is seeking the Republican nomination to oppose Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, a Democrat, showed up at a public elementary school in Brooklyn on Monday to lead a group of flag-waving children in a defiant rendition of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.,” a song for which the school’s principal had voiced by now well-known disapproval.

“What’s better than having a congressman come out here?” Representative Turner asked me outside Public School 90 in Coney Island on Monday, believing himself perhaps to be a cast member of “Glee.” Explaining what he hoped to accomplish, he said he had come “to continue and further an appreciation for the U.S.A.”

On one level the congressman’s actions might seem anodyne enough, but P.S. 90 is an embattled place where partisan intrusion was bound to deepen conflicts. Its principal, Greta Hawkins, who is black and presides over a predominantly white staff, has been under siege, the recipient of racist hate mail from unknown sources, and the target of a group of parents and some teachers who find her management style antagonizing. The school is divided among those who are staunchly devoted to her and believe she is striving for excellence, and those who aren’t and don’t.

Representative Turner’s choral efforts were hardly welcomed by all or even by many. Coney Island is close to the congressman’s district but not actually in it.

“This is a country song,” said Dina Rosado, president of the school’s PTA and a great believer in Ms. Hawkins. “This is Brooklyn. This is not the country.” Ms. Rosado’s husband, Jorge, directed a sign at Representative Turner that said, “Shame on You.”

A news release distributed by Mr. Turner’s campaign aides explained that he had reached out to parents after Ms. Hawkins banned the song from a kindergarten ceremony on the grounds that its lyrics were too adult. That decision became a matter of national attention after The New York Post reported that she had sought to replace the song with Justin Bieber’s “Baby.” This never happened. Still, the story managed to gain an insidious traction, diagraming in miniature how we’ve wound up in a world where facts are routinely eviscerated for the sake of political spectacle.

Even after the city’s Education Department explained that Ms. Hawkins had eliminated both songs simultaneously, Representative Turner’s campaign staff perpetuated the myth, declaring in its news release that Principal Hawkins had forbidden kindergartners to sing “God Bless the U.S.A.” but instead allowed them “to sing a Justin Bieber song gauged toward teenagers.” When I asked the campaign press aide why this was being stated even when it wasn’t so, she said that she had relied on what had been “widely reported.”

Mr. Turner was not the only representative seeking to capitalize on the drama. Michael G. Grimm, whose district includes Staten Island and part of Brooklyn, but not this part of Brooklyn, and who has criticized the principal, was scheduled to attend the singalong. He changed his plans at the last minute, because, as a news release put it, “The House of Representatives is in session.” That release, too, reiterated the Bieber claim, despite the evidence. In lieu of Representative Grimm, aides were sent to hand out free copies of Mr. Greenwood’s book, “Does God Still Bless the U.S.A.?”

(Should you feel sorry for Mr. Bieber, don’t. On Tuesday the Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer, felt it necessary to honor the pop star at a record signing at J&R Music World.)

With so much at stake for children in the city right now — steep cuts to early-childhood and after-school programs on the horizon, and schools that by the end of the year have run out of money for substitute teachers — it would seem little to ask for politicians to acquit themselves productively in regard to public education.

Getting passionate teachers and keeping them is, of course, one of the biggest challenges of all.

After Monday’s event had devolved into rival groups of children singing in a kind of face-off — those who came with the parents who dislike Ms. Hawkins singing Mr. Greenwood’s song, and those who came with parents who are her fans belting “America the Beautiful” — a 25-year old teacher, Chiara Nakashian, emerged from the school. An Oberlin graduate, she’d come to P.S. 90 through Teach for America and found herself deeply inspired by Ms. Hawkins’s work ethic and standards. “She is an amazing woman,” she told me.

But all the vitriol and divisiveness were getting to her. Ms. Nakashian said she’d stay another year, but after that she couldn’t say.

[marie427]

I cannot believe this is news and I think my congressman (Grimm) is an idiot for focusing on this non-issue that isn't even occurring in the part of Brooklyn that he represents.

They sang "America the Beautiful" instead. The nerve!

[lys]

Just as appropriate as children singing the "Obama Song" .

[Deleted]

Seriously. As someone in my FB newsfeed said (a conservative, no less!), just sing "Fifty Nifty United States" and call it a day.

[thejackpot]

Hey, I use it in my American Dream Unit guess I can expect an uproar. Not.

[UMaineTeach]

The thing is that the principal shouldn't have opposed it based on it being to adult (only to suggest a tween song).
She should have opposed it for discussing God and suggested another non-God patriotic song. That is a much easier stance for people to support in a public school.

[Deleted]

Jun 21, 2012 8:25:37 GMT -5 UMaineTeach said:

The thing is that the principal shouldn't have opposed it based on it being to adult (only to suggest a tween song). She should have opposed it for discussing God and suggested another non-God patriotic song. That is a much easier stance for people to support in a public school.

Did you read the article quoted in the OP? The principal did NOT suggest a the Bieber song.

[UMaineTeach]

Jun 21, 2012 8:30:08 GMT -5 @angryharpy said:

Jun 21, 2012 8:25:37 GMT -5 UMaineTeach said:

The thing is that the principal shouldn't have opposed it based on it being to adult (only to suggest a tween song). She should have opposed it for discussing God and suggested another non-God patriotic song. That is a much easier stance for people to support in a public school.

Did you read the article quoted in the OP? The principal did NOT suggest a the Bieber song.

must have skimmed that detail.

[ladybug2002]

They played God Bless the USA every morning at my school during Desert Storm, right before the pledge and anthem. I guess they wanted to make sure we were properly patriotized, lol.

[fernane]

I don't understand the opposition. Should kids not say the pledge, either, as it has "God" in it? Should they not carry money on school grounds? What's the difference if it's all about how inappropriate God is for public school?

[basilosaurus]

Jun 21, 2012 12:38:17 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

Oh my GOD I hate that song.

That is all. Carry on.

Yes! It will now be stuck in my head, too. Ugh.

They played this on base after every exercise, and then it would be in my head all weekend. Loathe.

[summer]

THIS is the most important thing happening in this school? They are wasting this much time on such a silly fucking issue? Are the school lunches fine? Do they have gym class everyday? Do they have arts, music, mentorship programs? Does the school have a social worker?

Sing the NATIONAL ANTHEM and get over it already. Who cares? Why is it such a big deal what they sing? Does anyone remember what they sang at that age? Did that song make the difference between you being a law-abiding citizen or a terrorist?

These adults are being horrible role models. It's like singing gangs out of Beat It or West Side Story. The kids should tell the adults to take 5 and just plan the whole thing themselves.

[laurenpetro]

i hate this fucking song. i had to listen to my CD player for months after 9/11 to escape this piece of shit.

[LoveTrains]

Is this the song that goes "and I'm proud to be an american, where at least I know I'm free?"

We learned that song and sang it repeatedly in my public elementary/middle school in NJ. I know it by heart! But it's super annoying.

[stephiehun]

Jun 21, 2012 14:28:53 GMT -5 laurenpetro said:

i hate this fucking song. i had to listen to my CD player for months after 9/11 to escape this piece of shit.

No lie - one of the thoughts that went through my head as we were watching the coverage that day was "OMG - that fucking song is going to come back, isn't it?"