[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> Regarding the other points you mentioned: (God Bless America, Lee
Greenwood,
> etc.,): In the past week I've seen "God Bless America" signs EVERYWHERE.
They
> are on the sides of apartment buildings, hanging off bridges, on
firehouses
> and on roadwork signs -- all over the place. There are flags in pretty
much
> every single window or outside every home or apartment in Queens (where I
> live.) I hadn't noticed them. I was too busy carefully watching the
people
> around me. I have a friend who went to a Mets game who said that they
sang
> God Bless America during the Seventh inning stretch.
They did that at the Astros game this evening. We came home from our
night out sometime during the 5th inning, IIRC, and the friend who was
babysitting was flipping back and forth between the game and the John
Lennon songs concert. She watches a lot of baseball, and when they
started singing "God Bless America" for the 7th inning stretch, she
indicated that she'd been seeing a lot of that lately. It's just the
Done Thing right now.
(BTW, the two things we wanted to happen in that game -- the Astros
winning and Bonds hitting his 70th homer for the year -- didn't happen,
either of them. Well, Bonds has 2 more games in that ballpark, maybe
he'll hit 70 yet.)
Julia
Me:
I was at Fenway Park on Thursday (for Cal Ripken's last game in Boston - my
way of saying goodbye. I was almost crying, amazingly enough.) We sang New
York! New York! during the fifth inning. It was amazing - I'd never seen
anything like it. Also God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch,
and of course the national anthem. The most striking thing, actually, was
that all of the Orioles stood at attention for God Bless America, but none
of the Red Sox did. This, of course, reflects The Oriole Way (a product of
Cal Ripken Sr.) which apparently still survives, and the Red Sox Way, which
apparently will never die. The amazing thing, however, was that people in
the crowd were furious with the Red Sox for failing to stand. It was quite
astonishing. And deeply, deeply moving. The idea of people in Fenway
singing a tribute to New York City is mindboggling enough, of course. But
the deep-rooted patriotism of the people in Fenway was the most reassuring
thing I have ever seen.
Gautam
