Please Rise

As published in The County Times (countytimes.somd.com)

By Ronald N. Guy Jr.

Hundreds of spectators shuffled around team tents, food trucks and the course.  With a ten-minute warning from the public address announcer, a noticeable concentration of humans began building near the starting line.  The opening lane of the cross country course parted in biblical fashion, revealing dozens of athletes going through final preparations.  The stretching was complete, pre-run jogs were wrapping up and team chants where echoing across the massive field.  Everyone was loose, lathered, hyped and ready to beat feet across the hinterland.

As is tradition at many sporting events, there was one remaining pre-race order of business.  The PA announcer’s voice boomed with familiar instructions: “Please rise and remove your hats for the singing of our national anthem.” 

Many visions pass through the mind in such moments – Francis Scott Key penning the words, the Fort McHenry flag at the Smithsonian, the brave souls signing the Declaration of Independence (literally putting their lives on the line), the veterans who have preserved our freedom (some of whom gave their lives), those serving today, our very complicated history (both extraordinary and disgraceful) and our nation’s present status.  The dominant feelings, down to the bone, created by any rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner” are pride, gratitude and responsibility – to maintain our great American experiment and advance it closer to the nation contemplated in our Declaration.   

This version, landing just two days after a presidential election, was complicated.  Anyone that’s been in the presidential election game for several decades will tell you this: your candidate will prevail about half of the time.  That’s the nature of whipsaw American politics.  Until very recent history, the unsuccessful candidate and his/her supporters were disappointed in, but respectful of, the losses and the sanctity of our democratic process; winners felt tremendous satisfaction, but also the heavy responsibility of governing this great nation.  The overall feeling was relief…that it was over, that annoying commercials would stop, signs would be taken down and mailings would cease, and that we could collectively get back to our universal American cause.  Losing recent elections, though, has resulted in genuine despair at best, violence at worst; winning, meanwhile has left some seeking retribution for past failings and emboldened to dominate, not serve within, the newly elected executive and congressional branches.

It is, in a couple words, deeply troubling, and, to add a phrase, unprecedented in my lifetime. 

As our anthem played at that cross country meet last week, I wondered what everyone was thinking.  I assume the crowd was, politically, basically split down the middle; that’s just where we are.  How many people were thinking of our shared American cause?  Conversely, how many were fearful of the future or, for good or ill, excited about the prospect of ruling the next few years?  My suspicion is there were greater feelings of fear and glee, than reflections on the great, joint responsibility we all carry at this moment – for those who handed us the reins of this great country and those who will inherent our work in the future.

The daydreams ended as “…and the home of the brave” boomed from the speakers and the song concluded.  This allowed for a natural transition back to sports.  Soon thereafter, a gun sounded and young athletes were off, traversing fields and hills in a thunderous herd of humanity.  The competition, welcomed tonic that it was, immediately extinguished political thought.  Whatever anyone was thinking when Key’s song played was now a faded memory.  Athletes were competing and fans were lost in the moment – scrambling to and from various points on the track, snapping photos and offering spirited support. 

The last 50 yards before the finish line were electric – streams of unrestrained excitement, random names being called out at full throat, and strained faces of exhausted runners sprinting in one final dash to glory.  For most, winning seemed a secondary concern; exerting maximum effort and representing oneself well for their team and their school was the greater cause.  Pushing the “me” to best serve the “we”: Key certainly witnessed that when gazing upon Fort McHenry in 1814.  Whether it’s present and contagious today remains to be seen.