From the Editor
D minus
At a recent York High School sporting event, the National Anthem was sung a cappella by a trio of York High School students from up inside the press booth. Whatever amount of preparation went into this effort, it was not enough.Aside from improper placement of the singers in front of the microphones (in itself regrettable, but largely forgivable) such that only one voice of the three parts could be heard clearly, the students who were singing lost their place, forgot the words and could be heard in the background to be laughing about it all. Only the rescue provided by the players on the field and the fans in the stands, who joined in to complete the anthem, saved this from being a complete failure.
We are, as a paper, well disposed toward students. We have been supportive of music and arts programs in particular, all of which made us particularly disappointed about the lack of respect shown in the preparation for this effort.
Our nation is at war, with our service members in harm's way every day. Not a week goes by without news of additional wounded or killed. And when we hear our students come out and disrespect this anthem in this way, it cannot help but give us pause as to the nature of the disconnect that is going on.
Somewhere in all this is an adult, or group of adults, who made a decision that these students were prepared to sing the anthem, that they understood the importance and meaning of it and that they were prepared to do it behind a microphone at a public event. We presume (perhaps incorrectly) that the students made a decision that they were prepared as well.
But clearly, they were not.
Preparation and respect are often the same thing, and the public performance of the National Anthem is a poor place for winging it. Let's not hear this again.
Five years on
WE WILL NEVER FORGET. A flag flies at half-mast on Monday, as each of the flags at York's schools and municipal offices did that day - in memoriam - on the five-year anniversary of the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Photo by Jennifer L. Saunders
Our danger is in forgetting what it meant. Five years on, our respect is shown, or not, by the lives we lead in the aftermath.
"Nothing will ever be the same," we said, and we set about, for a time anyways, living our lives in a different way. A reality check of the most horrific kind, 9/11 put us into a time of not just national, but perhaps more importantly, individual reconsideration of virtually all our priorities.
These were personal judgments that we all made then, and perhaps that is what 9/11 can most offer us now: a simple day of reflection, remembrance, rededication to the things that were so desperately important to us as we tried to cope five years ago. Community over self, sacrifice over pleasure, courage over fear.
Five years later brought us another clear, bright September day. A good day for remembering how fortunate we are, and how much we still have to do.
