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9/11 Memorial guards order kids to stop singing national anthem

What's wrong with people in North Carolina? First they expect me to go into the Men's RR just because I happen to have a penis, now they think they have a right to sing the Star Spangled Banner at the 9/11 Memorial. I used to love Barney, Andy, Floyd and Gomer. Now I just don't know anymore.
 
Officials at the National September 11 Memorial Museum in Manhattan said on Monday that one of their security guards should not have stopped a North Carolina middle school choir from singing the national anthem on the plaza last week.

“The guard did not respond appropriately,” Kaylee Skaar, a museum spokeswoman, said. “We are working with our security staff to ensure that this does not happen again with future student performances.”

About 50 students from Waynesville Middle School in western North Carolina were at the memorial on Wednesday and had just started singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” when a guard told them to stop.

Martha Brown, a teacher from the school, said on Monday that a different security guard had given permission for her students to sing. But the second guard said, “You just can’t do this; you’ve got to stop now,” Ms. Brown said. “So we very reverently and quietly stopped what we were doing and complied with his request and quietly exited the park.”

Video posted afterward by an adult on the school field trip had prompted outrage and led to an invitation for the students to sing the anthem live on Fox News. Ms. Brown and Trevor Putnam, the school’s principal, joined the students for their performance at the school on Monday.

Ms. Brown said her students learned from the experience. “We turned it into a teaching moment and taught them that even if you don’t agree with it, or understand it, you must respect authority,” she said.

Mr. Putnam echoed the sentiment.

“The lesson learned here is always to respect authority,” the principal said in a telephone interview. “And I’m so proud of our kids for conducting themselves the way they did.”

Crystal Mulvey, a parent who accompanied her daughter on the trip, said she was shocked that the guard interrupted the national anthem because “it’s kind of a sacred song to us.” But, she added, “On the flip side, I completely understand following rules.”

Striking a balance between remembering those killed by terrorists and rebuilding a bustling commercial district has been a challenge since the attack in 2001. Tourists paying their respects to the dead now share the memorial plaza with neighborhood residents and office workers from the new World Trade Center towers eating lunch under the trees.

Officials at the memorial said groups wishing to perform on the crowded plaza are supposed to pay $35 to apply for a permit and obey a list of rules that includes not using amplified sound and not interfering with the flow of traffic. Ms. Brown said she was not aware of the permit requirement.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/26/n...al.html&eventName=Watching-article-click&_r=0
 
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This was, unfortunately, a typical Fox News Channel hysterical overreaction. The rule is perfectly reasonable and proper, and the authorities were correct to react the way they did.
 
9/11 needs no more patriotism or jingoism pushed its way, and especially not at its memorial.
 
Not surprised. The 9/11 memorial is a joke. It's a police state down there. Metal detectors, 3D scans, they even require you to remove your shoes to get in. Nothing says freedom like having to taking off your shoes to prove you don't have a weapon.
 
Not surprised. The 9/11 memorial is a joke. It's a police state down there. Metal detectors, 3D scans, they even require you to remove your shoes to get in. Nothing says freedom like having to taking off your shoes to prove you don't have a weapon.

And you probably can't smoke anywhere, either.
 
I don't want to live in a society that bans people from spontaneously breaking out in song.
Well. that's an interesting position, but that isn't what happened here. The thing was planned in advance. The kids and their teacher meant well. They just didn't follow a very reasonable rule because they didn't know about it.

In my case, I don't want to live in a society where I can't visit my brother's grave because some hippy asshole might sing a protest song. And I really don't want to live in a society where a government agent can arbitrarily decide which song is OK and which isn't.
 
Not surprised. The 9/11 memorial is a joke. It's a police state down there. Metal detectors, 3D scans, they even require you to remove your shoes to get in. Nothing says freedom like having to taking off your shoes to prove you don't have a weapon.
That may be the single dumbest post I have ever read on this board. And that takes in one hell of a lot of territory.
 
Singing is a form of expression, which is considered a form of speech, and therefore, is protected activity.

LOL...such a simple mind. Go to the latest Avengers movie, stand up in the middle of it, sing the National Anthem, tell 'em you have freedom of speech - including singing. Let us know what happens.
 
Well. that's an interesting position, but that isn't what happened here. The thing was planned in advance. The kids and their teacher meant well. They just didn't follow a very reasonable rule because they didn't know about it.

In my case, I don't want to live in a society where I can't visit my brother's grave because some hippy asshole might sing a protest song. And I really don't want to live in a society where a government agent can arbitrarily decide which song is OK and which isn't.

This. It was the first security guard who made the major mistake.
 
9/11 needs no more patriotism or jingoism pushed its way, and especially not at its memorial.

I would argue the opposite.

We have a president who considers 9/11 simply a speed bump in our national history ... something that cannot be forgotten fast enough.

He constantly reminds Valerie Jarrett that more people die in car accidents in any given year than died that day in Manhattan. His point seems to be that we should accept a certain annual death toll from terrorism as the new normal. As we go forward in time with this issue, 9/11 will loom larger and larger as the single most pivotal event of our time.

Singing the National Anthem in this context is not Jingoistic. I am sorry but that is hallowed ground.

...............................................

LC raises the issue of Jingoistic and exploitative news coverage. He is correct of course in his criticism of Fox news. This part of the story developed later and needs to be held separate from the events at the memorial. I think their "Megyn Kelly to the rescue" strategy of boosting ratings is becoming a little frayed and producers are groping at whatever is out there. I suspect that a few of these producers will leave the network along about the same time that she departs.
 
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