Denver preps for DNC with national anthem snub
posted at 10:30 am on July 2, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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The city of Denver has already begun to celebrate the Democratic National Convention, which officially begins less than two months from now. Pre-events have included the Colorful Food Watch and the Festival of Unpaid Bills, and yesterday’s State of the City speech began with Leftist Patriotism on Display. Instead of singing the national anthem as requested, Rene Marie replaced it with a protest song:
Mayor John Hickenlooper’s annual State of the City address may get more attention for what wasn’t included than what was.
At the start of the event Tuesday morning, City Council President Michael Hancock introduced singer Rene Marie to perform the national anthem.
Instead, she performed the song “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” which is also known as the “black national anthem.”
When she finished, the audience responded with mild applause. The national anthem was never performed.
Hickenlooper and city officials got caught completely by surprise, as Marie kept her intentions hidden until the actual performance. None of them acted to stop her or lead the crowd in the actual national anthem either, but by the time they would have realized what was happening, it was probably all over. Marie wanted to make a political statement, and succeeded — in setting off a firestorm.
Angry officials and residents lit up talk-radio phone lines in Denver afterwards. Councilman Charlie Brown declared that the US has one national anthem for all Americans, and that the Star Spangled Banner was the appropriate choice for the event. Marie could express herself in any number of venues, Brown noted, but that official city events should feature the actual American national anthem.
In addressing the media, Marie displayed the self-centeredness of people who hijack events for their own aggrandizement. “When I decided to sing my version, what was going on in my head was: ‘I want to express how I feel about living in the United States, as a black woman, as a black person,” she explained. However, the event wasn’t staged to give Marie a platform for her political views; it was an official speech by the Mayor to communicate the status of city government to its citizens.
Unfortunately, Denver had better get used to this kind of It’s all about how I feel as a [blank] thought process over the next two months.
Update: Be sure to read Baldilock’s take on this, which offers a little implicit criticism for me. In my defense, I never asserted that the song itself was Leftist, but rather the ridiculous display yesterday was. Otherwise, she’s dead on point.
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I can’t wait for August!!!
I was in Denver last month and I took LOTS of pictures. BEFORE pictures!
Talon on July 2, 2008 at 10:35 AM
My guess is she is upset Hillary lost.
WoosterOh on July 2, 2008 at 10:35 AM
It is all about “me” in this country. It is how “I” feel. Forget about the rest of “you.” Disgusting.
robblefarian on July 2, 2008 at 10:36 AM
The national anthem will not be performed because all the good progressives will respond with Nazi salutes.
RobCon on July 2, 2008 at 10:36 AM
Wow.
I know a Rene Marie. You really don’t want her to sing anything either…
dish on July 2, 2008 at 10:36 AM
Let’s see. Future predictions.
Next guest invited to an Obama rally……Check.
Next guest to be thrown under the bus…..Check.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 2, 2008 at 10:36 AM
Ed:
The mayor:
Hmm. Concealing what you’re going to sing and then singing a song of protest. You decide.
Vizzini on July 2, 2008 at 10:37 AM
Of for cryin’ out loud…you guys fill in the blanks because this pisses me off to much for me to.
But yeah…Denver’s gonna be interesting come August.
Bob's Kid on July 2, 2008 at 10:37 AM
Maybe if this happens with sufficient frequency, we’ll get off our arses and work to return some sanity to government and country.
I’ve been sick of the left for about 18 years, just waiting for the rest of America to roll up their sleeves and get to work. Ain’t happening. Too busy. Not my job. Don’t want to make waves. Now look.
eaglesdontflock on July 2, 2008 at 10:37 AM
Gold!
McCain needs those 9ev’s of Colorado badly. Anything to put a dent in Barry’s lead there is most welcome. Keep singing lady…loudly.
Limerick on July 2, 2008 at 10:38 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw02sW04hHE
WoosterOh on July 2, 2008 at 10:38 AM
This seems like a song that was probably sung routinely at TUCC. Confirmation?
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 2, 2008 at 10:38 AM
Thats nothing I’m sure. Keep watching. This may prove to some of the best Leftard watching ever.
Lunkinator on July 2, 2008 at 10:38 AM
So THAT is the “new” Patriotism… Thanks to his majesty for finally defining it after almost 300 years since the founding of our nation, or I never would have recognized it!
singlemalt_18 on July 2, 2008 at 10:39 AM
An “inartful” rendition of our national anthem.
fogw on July 2, 2008 at 10:39 AM
I trust they withdrew any honorarium for her? Even singers can be fired on the spot.
Tim on July 2, 2008 at 10:39 AM
Was she union?
singlemalt_18 on July 2, 2008 at 10:40 AM
So that’s what happened to Charlie Brown. Cool.
As for the anthem business, please, please, please keep this up, you lefty nutburgers.
capitalist piglet on July 2, 2008 at 10:40 AM
My son went to a Jr. College in Baton Rouge and while in the cafeteria a group began to sing the “black national anthem”. They started yelling at him to stand during the song. He had no idea what it was until later. He was harassed and intimidated.
roux on July 2, 2008 at 10:41 AM
Sad that they clapped at all.
Makes me very sick
WoosterOh on July 2, 2008 at 10:41 AM
Love your subhed about the song promised!
Honesty is apparently expendable for some people when it comes to getting what you believe you deserve. Perhaps this is what Obama’s “leaning to center/right” is all about…
max1 on July 2, 2008 at 10:41 AM
.
If we don’t get our act together, I’m afraid we ALL had better get used to this….
Think_b4_speaking on July 2, 2008 at 10:41 AM
Things to do in Denver when you’re (a)Dead(Head)?
carbon_footprint on July 2, 2008 at 10:43 AM
At least we were spared her version of Leonard Cohen’s Susanne.
mymanpotsandpans on July 2, 2008 at 10:43 AM
Expect a Kanye West rap version of The Stars Bangled Banner to open the convention in Denver, followed by the benediction performed by Calypso Louie.
fogw on July 2, 2008 at 10:43 AM
Maybe we are being too hard on her; perhaps she doesn’t know the words to The Star Spangled Banner.
Think_b4_speaking on July 2, 2008 at 10:44 AM
Hope!
Change!
Change the National Anthem!
Brat on July 2, 2008 at 10:44 AM
They’ll find someone with class for the convention. There are loads of African American opera singers, although I wouldn’t presume to know their politics. Denyce Graves sang at Bush’s 2005 swearing-in. I would guess that most would sing the national anthem at either convention.
BigD on July 2, 2008 at 10:47 AM
LMAO!
txsurveyor on July 2, 2008 at 10:47 AM
“That’s not the Rene Marie I’ve known for twenty minutes,” -Hussein.
Akzed on July 2, 2008 at 10:47 AM
As mixed-race intersexed polysexual womyn of color and faith in our great mother spirit, I feel greatly offended that there are still those bigoted few who would try to suppress this expression of anthemitity.
ninjapirate on July 2, 2008 at 10:48 AM
Maybe they will get the woman that sang the National Anthem at the event where Barry was holding his package. The words were all there, but the tune was unrecognizable.
txsurveyor on July 2, 2008 at 10:48 AM
As they say, heh.
Maybe she just “misspoke.” Or missang, in this case.
BigD on July 2, 2008 at 10:48 AM
I read somewhere that the networks are planning only an hour per night coverage of the convention. If so we are going to need our pamphleteers to spread the YouTubeTruth.
If the Dem’s get in this might be the last election where every blog comment isn’t required by law to be vetted for ‘fairness’.
Limerick on July 2, 2008 at 10:48 AM
This, from a commenter on the linked article - truly frightening:
Think_b4_speaking on July 2, 2008 at 10:48 AM
Really? I was told it was “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”. Must be one of those things like how we must refer to minorities which changes every couple of years.
Blake on July 2, 2008 at 10:49 AM
Michelle Hussein-Obama must be so proud.
Wade on July 2, 2008 at 10:49 AM
Denver better warm up that Crap Cannon they say they have.
It’s gonna be a long August..
pilamaye on July 2, 2008 at 10:49 AM
How much of “blue” Colorado comes from the environs of Denver?
The Denver that lit up the boards of the talk shows after this stunt
The Denver whose taxpayers are about to take a bath for hosting the Dem convention
The Denver that may be getting wrecked by smelly protesters this August
Wonder how blue they will be in November?
Sekhmet on July 2, 2008 at 10:49 AM
Oh, that rule of unintended consequences is getting ready for a huge mack-down of these narcissistic fools.
bbz123 on July 2, 2008 at 10:50 AM
Who’s the white jackass with his hand over his heart in the picture?
JiangxiDad on July 2, 2008 at 10:50 AM
Well, I watched the video (thx wooster).
Stupid, patriotic Americans standing around not even understanding or knowing that a racist song was being sung right under their noses.
This is symptomatic of what is going on all over our country.
Racist and anti-American churches and mosques. NOI, saudi mosques, Trinity, Black Liberation Theology.
Right under our nose, while we applaud.
faraway on July 2, 2008 at 10:50 AM
Who is YT in the background with hand over heart?
Wade on July 2, 2008 at 10:50 AM
OMIGOD WHAT A SCANDAL!!!!
AND WHERE ARE THEIR FLAG PINS
Dave Rywall on July 2, 2008 at 10:51 AM
Maybe for the Democrat Convention they will just drop all pretense and sing L’Internationale?
Akzed on July 2, 2008 at 10:51 AM
You beat me to it!
crazy_legs on July 2, 2008 at 10:52 AM
.
I can just see you saying the same thing, if someone substituted ‘Dixie’ for the anthem at an event.
Think_b4_speaking on July 2, 2008 at 10:56 AM
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
Oh, and I believe the DNC is in PAY IN ADVANCE mode, because their credit is NO GOOD!
originalpechanga on July 2, 2008 at 10:56 AM
You know, if they would o just announced, that there would be two songs, one a straight forward National Anthem, and that if they dont mind, Maire would like to sing a sond dear to African Americans hearts, a sort of tribute to Obama and how far race relations had come, I think it would of gone down better, but clearly that took thinking on my part, and non-racist thinking.
WoosterOh on July 2, 2008 at 10:57 AM
Hey Lim, I think we can count on the MSNBC team giving the convention 24/7 coverage, wearing their “Yes We Can” authentic Obama drool bibs.
fogw on July 2, 2008 at 10:57 AM
Perhaps she was simnply angry that the MC introducing her got her surname wrong?
radjah shelduck on July 2, 2008 at 10:57 AM
Deutchland uber alles will be next, right?
mjk on July 2, 2008 at 10:57 AM
Maybe her husband has never run for President, so she’s never been proud of her country.
RBMN on July 2, 2008 at 10:58 AM
The “black national anthem” supplanting our national anthem is just another brick in the wall of the things to come if the dimocrats gain power. Americans are acting like an alcoholic who has to hit rock bottom so they realize what they had and start over to try and become who they once were. The pity is that recovery sometimes does not occur.
volsense on July 2, 2008 at 10:58 AM
Strange. I notice no mention of affirmative action in the song.
a capella on July 2, 2008 at 10:58 AM
I predict now, there will be riots this November. Bookmark this page.
WoosterOh on July 2, 2008 at 10:58 AM
Another prediction, young white students will be singing that song during sporting events come this Fall.
WoosterOh on July 2, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Well, ‘my friend’, in fly-over America it is a scandal. Your City-States haven’t buried those folks yet. Hard to imagine a town without a crappuccino machine, isn’t it?
Limerick on July 2, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Separatist but equal.
JammieWearingFool on July 2, 2008 at 11:00 AM
You are correct. I have been saying the same thing for months.
txsurveyor on July 2, 2008 at 11:00 AM
“My son went to a Jr. College in Baton Rouge and while in the cafeteria a group began to sing the “black national anthem”. They started yelling at him to stand during the song. He had no idea what it was until later. He was harassed and intimidated.
roux on July 2, 2008 at 10:41 AM”
But don’t you DARE question the Left’s patriotism!
DavePa on July 2, 2008 at 11:01 AM
Give me a break…you feel like ANY woman living in the US. This habit of black Americans who constantly cry racism where none exists has got to stop. I think most of us are sick and tired of people with a chip on their shoulder who think they’re owed something special. If a black man can win the nomination of one of the main parties, you’re no longer allowed to cry racism or claim you live differently as a black woman in this country. If you think it’s so bad here, that we’re so hateful and racist, go somewhere else maybe?
TheBlueSite on July 2, 2008 at 11:02 AM
How about putting her race before her country, and deceiving the audience as to her intent? Tribalism before country?
a capella on July 2, 2008 at 11:02 AM
Yes, but was the goofy grammar and inventive spelling a necessary part of your thought process?
Akzed on July 2, 2008 at 11:03 AM
Denyce Graves! Yow!
Gottafang on July 2, 2008 at 11:03 AM
I LOVE this guy’s comic strip. Great name.
TheBlueSite on July 2, 2008 at 11:03 AM
If by “post-racial” they mean making white people feel some defensive racism has become necessary to avoid being swept up in an urban machete bloodbath like Rwanda, score!
Beagle on July 2, 2008 at 11:04 AM
Well, now that we all know how you feel … why don’t you carry your ungrateful black self somewhere else? Your pompous, self aggrandizing black self isn’t wanted or needed here.
darwin on July 2, 2008 at 11:04 AM
This is going to be fun election. What will happen when the American people get wind that the Democrat party wants to take over America and take us down the path that does not include freedom and liberty.
tarpon on July 2, 2008 at 11:05 AM
I’m sure the Obama campaign has scolded this woman for tipping their hand. We must wait until after the election to start eliminating all the symbols of racist AmeriKKKa!!
rockmom on July 2, 2008 at 11:05 AM
LOL
Aren’t Democrats trying to swing Colorado? Good job! Live by identity politics, die by identity politics.
LOL
Theworldisnotenough on July 2, 2008 at 11:05 AM
Democrats…selfish, divided, self centered, uncaring…some party of inclusion…a “black anthem”?, what next, a Latino Anthem, Vietnamese Anthem, Chinese Anthem, Irish Anthem, Armenian Anthem, good lord these people can’t get enough of themselves, they have to hijack an event to embarrass themselves.
right2bright on July 2, 2008 at 11:07 AM
Reminds me of Obama’s candidacy.
faraway on July 2, 2008 at 11:07 AM
Cheap, lazy, cliche, thoughtless, cop-out, tired, and victimized.
carbon_footprint on July 2, 2008 at 11:08 AM
Oh say can you see,
The donkeys make asses of themselves in Denver?
Just like Chicago 1968.
Please, please, please, Democrats, hear my plea:
Show all Americans your alternate vision for America!
Bring us your protestors, your identity politics,
Your Al Sharptons yapping at the cameras.
Lift up your Code Pink to babble their nonsense.
Sell us, really sell us, on defeat in Iraq.
Speak to us in condescending tones,
about how we misunderstood Pastor Wrights rants,
and Obama’s coziness with Weathermen bombers,
who wail they didn’t bomb enough.
Lay it all out for us,
so America can render its judgement.
Heh, heh, heh.
Tantor on July 2, 2008 at 11:08 AM
Init outrage…
Mustering outrage…
ERROR
Outrage failure in sector 239048092834.
Out of Care.
Please install more Care.
Abort, Retry, Fail?
TheUnrepentantGeek on July 2, 2008 at 11:09 AM
I would like to know which church this racist attends. Trinity?
faraway on July 2, 2008 at 11:09 AM
This is not the National Anthem that I knew…
Lunkinator on July 2, 2008 at 11:09 AM
‘I want to express how I feel about living in the United States, as a black woman, as a black person,” she explained.
Maybe she should go experience life as a black woman living in Darfur or Zimbabwe and then sing about that.
Obama is doing a great job of bringing us all together isn’t he?
ctmom on July 2, 2008 at 11:09 AM
Who was the asshat who had his hand on his heart while she was singing it, I wonder? Were it me, at the point I knew she was spouting those other words, I’d have sat down.
MNDavenotPC on July 2, 2008 at 11:10 AM
Obama/Mugabe 08!
Oh wait, at least one of them wasn’t born here.
Akzed on July 2, 2008 at 11:10 AM
We wouldn’t dare replace the National Anthem with One Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall!
Limerick on July 2, 2008 at 11:10 AM
Aren’t you the goofball that lied about John McCain not paying property taxes?
And when straightened out with the facts, you never responded…in other words you are a bomb thrower, that won’t back up his posts.
So I guess this post fits your M.O.
right2bright on July 2, 2008 at 11:11 AM
Of course, at the Republican convention, it will be, “Jose can you see …..”
BigD on July 2, 2008 at 11:11 AM
“Leg-shivering” moments are optional?
Rovin on July 2, 2008 at 11:12 AM
That is funny, as I was writing that I almost put that exact thing in parenthesis, but I didn’t want to offend the German’s.
right2bright on July 2, 2008 at 11:12 AM
Akzed
Sorry, I am not an educated person.
WoosterOh on July 2, 2008 at 11:12 AM
+1
carbon_footprint on July 2, 2008 at 11:13 AM
Maybe they could just re-pen “The Star Spangled Banner” with sufficiently “emotional” George Lakoff-approved lyrics.
Blacklake on July 2, 2008 at 11:13 AM
The part that I highlighted. “May we forever stand, true to our native land.” That is totally in keeping with the BLT preached at TUCC. In fact, this could have easily been sung at La Raza, LULAC, or Aztlan meeting.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 2, 2008 at 11:14 AM
This reveals much about a certain subset of negro society. They view themselves as ‘living here’, but they are not Americans.
You want to see America destroyed? Give trash like this a foot in the door of the White House.
LimeyGeek on July 2, 2008 at 11:15 AM
idiots. Clapping, must have thought she was singing the national anthem. But, this was a political body in attendace so you can’t really expect too much from them.
RobertInAustin on July 2, 2008 at 11:15 AM
Wait till (God forbid) Obama is President. It won’t be long before he’s considered an Oreo and traitor, because life for the poor and uneducated black man and woman will not change. Without effort on their part, they’ll still be poor and uneducated. Bad as a President Obama will be, he won’t be the Robin Hood they’d like to have.
RBMN on July 2, 2008 at 11:15 AM
I wonder if she could express how she feels as an AMERICAN living in AMERICA. Twit.
Mallard T. Drake on July 2, 2008 at 11:16 AM
Were Michelle Obama’s children available for comment?
Mallard T. Drake on July 2, 2008 at 11:16 AM
Denver Post
faraway on July 2, 2008 at 11:18 AM
Is there enough microwave popcorn stockpiled for the event? I know I’ve got an entire box from Sam’s Club just waiting. OH MAN is this gonna be a scene.
scottm on July 2, 2008 at 11:19 AM
Think back to the time when the left controlled the whole media and stuff like this wasn’t known. You’ll feel better :)
JiangxiDad on July 2, 2008 at 11:20 AM
Sung to the tune of…
Rene can’t you see
By your liberal lights
What you hold in contempt
Is so dear to all of us?
How you disrespect us
With your asinine song
Which if you would have sung
In my home I’d have smacked you.
If you had just a squirt
Of the sense God gave dirt
You’d have known in your heart
That your ruse would cause hurt
Thank God that the Star Spangled Banner yet waves
O’r the land of the free and the home of some knaves
Akzed on July 2, 2008 at 11:20 AM
Just imagine the reaction if someone had sung a “White National Anthem“!
Steve McCullough on July 2, 2008 at 11:21 AM
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