oh say can you see...

In the days after Super Bowl 45, the biggest thing making headlines isn't who won the game (GO PACK), the score or the halftime show.  It's the fact that Christina Aguilera flubbed the words to the national anthem.  It seems that no one will let this go!  Give the poor girl a break.If you were singing the national anthem in front of millions you KNOW you'd be a nervous wreck and there'd be a chance you might slip up too!

But that's not what bothers me about the thing.  Everyone is so quick to judge the fact that she forgot the lyrics, but how many people actually know the words themselves?  I do.  In high school, I was given the opportunity to attend Arkansas Girls State.  What's that you might ask?  I'll be glad to tell you!  Girls State is a program put on by the American Legion to given high school students going into their senior year of high school a chance to see how government works on a state level.  For one week, girls from across the state encroached on Harding University in Searcy for Girls State to learn about state and local government.  If you leave there at the end of the week only learning one thing, it's our National Anthem.  You sang it 3-6 times a day, everyday!  Not only did we learn the standard verse that's always sung, but we sang a second verse that 7 years later I could probably still sing (but please don't ask me to).

I'm proud of the time I spent at Girls State as a delegate and as a counselor.  I'm proud of knowing that I can sing our national anthem from memory at any given moment.  Knowing the lyrics of our national anthem is part of having pride in our country and shows respect to where we've been, where we are, and where we're going as a country.  It honors the men and women who fought to protect our freedom and gave us the opportunity to live where we do and have the freedom we have.

So I'm issuing a challenge to all of you who read this: Learn the lyrics to our National Anthem!  You'll be proud of yourself (and I'll be proud of you too!) and you'll impress all your friends at the next sporting event you attend when you can sing along!