Click photo to watch Christina Aguilera sing U.S. National Anthem in 2011 Superbowl.

Greetings everyone,

It’s been a brief period of time since this event took place, but I feel a bit compelled to compose an entry here on the ‘Valente Journal’.  Rather than have created an extra long tweet on what I’m going to discuss in detail, I’ll just create a healthy post instead.  So 6 February 2011, we were presented with ‘Super Bowl 45’.  Well, I now refer to it as, ‘Stupor Bowl Infinite’.  I didn’t catch this particular game, but that did not prevent me from hearing how everyone was bashing Christina Aguilera’s performance of ‘The National Anthem’.  Really people, this is what you were up in arms about? Give me a break. 

As one can see, Christina Aguilera has been selected several times throughout her career to sing the U.S. National Anthem. Click here and view her 2010 NBA Finals performance.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy entertainment, which sometimes includes an occasional sporting event, also encompassing football, on the NFL level.  Having said that, I opted out of this year’s Super Bowl.  Simply put, my interests were elsewhere.  However, when I heard how many people called into radio programs voicing their disgust for pop singer, Christina Aguilera’s performance of the U.S. National Anthem, I was simply shocked at how upset many had become. I’m all for the 1^st Amendment, freedom of expression, and the verbage fans used matched by their display of passion, were simply electric.  From coast to coast, I heard people up in arms saying how the song should be a tribute to the country, and that singers consistently dismantle the song’s original meaning and harmony.  The gripes go on and on, into what I can only describe as a child like temper tantrum.  Oh, it’s not just football, but many professional sporting events seem to suffer this plague of ‘American sports patriotism’. That’s right, Sport’s patriotism.

Young Gina, much like many talented vocalists, performs the National Anthem in her own creative style at a NY Met's game. Is she not patriotic as well? I think she's patriotic. Listen to her unique style by clicking her photo. The Date- 9/2009

These same individuals whimper about teams losing, yet cheer frantically like little school girls when teams win?  They over analyze a bunch of other grown men playing children’s games, memorizing stats, and saying who’d they fire and trade, as though it would make a difference.  Oh, they’re patriotic when it comes to their sports, but surely, I ask, where are they when it comes to the legislative process within the actual, United States of America? Yeah, remember that word? The legislative branch, it’s that part of our government that has the power to create new laws of the land in many forms, from commerce, taxation, health, security, trade, and etcetera.  Where is the passion from our fellow countrymen and women, when our congress is bought and sold to the highest bidders from Wall Street, to the lobbyist in D.C. each congressional session?  Greed filled businessmen that lobby our civic leaders to draft laws, placing women, children, and men in harm’s way; under the assault of harmful body scanners @airports that expose us to high levels of radiation, and invasive pat downs of public humiliation? Where’s the outspoken voice of the average American when a radical government is so crass, they demand citizens pay insurance companies for health care, just because we’re alive and born American? (Reference to health care mandate found in PPACA, signed into law by President Obama 2010)  Where’s the outcry when congress is convinced to pass laws preventing us from growing our own crops to eat and replenish our own bodies with good nutrition? (The food safety bill 2011)

Click to watch Christina Aguilera sing the U.S. National Anthem 2007

Again, I ask, where? Hmm…oh that’s right, they’re sitting around they’re living rooms complaining about an, albeit, talented vocalist, miss a line or two from our country’s national anthem, during a sporting event, yet they forgot that the country itself is not what it once was, thus making this song almost irrelevant, and nothing short of ceremonial at best.  That anthem once represented a great “…Republic, for which it stands, One nation, Under God, indivisible, with Liberty, and Justice, for All.” Remember that?  Of course most don’t remember this, for the ideas in that short, paraphrased sentence are but a faint and distant memory, in retrospect.  We’ve allowed things such as ‘The Patriot Act’ (signed into law by President Bush), a law that is an oxymoron in name, to destroy the very constitution, the national anthem once embodied.  In regards to the Patriot Act, the 4th Amendment seems to be the most in peril.  All the while, many individuals are stuffing their faces with beer and hot dogs, forgetting who we were, and where we came from, as our history books continue collecting dust.  It’s very sad, and quite pathetic, but overall, it’s downright frustrating how disengaged we’ve become as a society!  It’s a given that we all subjectively place value on different things.  After all, it’s our 1^st Amendment right to do so, but as Americans, shouldn’t we all value liberty at least within our top 5 list of invaluable gifts?  If the constitution of the United States of America ceases to exist, the U.S.A as we once knew it will more likely perish forever, along with that beloved 1^st Amendment, right.

Sure, Christina Aguilera made some errors in a symbolic song at a sporting event, but on the

And finally, click here to watch Christina perform the U.S. National Anthem at a 1992 Stanley cup game @ just 11 years of age.

contrary, maybe the song still embodies symbolism; the symbolism of the current state of the union. That is, the crumbling of a once great republic, that is unfortunately in declining health each and every passing day.  Many have outwardly come out and asked “what was wrong with Christina Aguilera, and what was she thinking?”  To the masses who have collectively allowed this country to fall on its backside in ill; allowing it to be filled with everything this republic once stood steadfast against, such as: oppression, tyrannical leadership, ignorance, and overall, mass corruption, I ask this to you…”What the hell is wrong with YOU?! 

As always, Common Sense Overrules Nonsense here @ “A Valente Journal,”

-Lorenzo