Watch: Every American Should See How These Young Men Treat the Anthem
It’s difficult to believe that we’re about to go through another football season where the national anthem is actually an issue. One of the few things that’s supposed to unite us as a country is, instead, being used as a divisive political statement. Again.
At least some people know how to honor the anthem. And now, four young Texas men are going viral for their rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” — something I know an NFL player or two that could learn from. Either way, every American needs to see how they treat “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
So, according to the tweet that made these students famous, they all attend Duncanville High School just outside Dallas.
All of them are seniors and were apparently singing at a back-to-school rally.
Oliver McGee, the well-known Republican strategist, decided that these students deserved a little love.
And so, he put their rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” on Twitter.
Retweet These 4 Gifted Boys Singing 🎤 our National Anthem 🇺🇸 @POTUS @realDonaldTrump!
Danny Lyons, Aadon Benson, Ryan Smith & Matthew Merritt are seniors at Dallas’ Duncanville High.
They performed at my @TexasTech mentee, @VirgilioAGomez’s high school back-to-school rally! pic.twitter.com/eKHVh5cIaC
— Oliver McGee PhD MBA (@OliverMcGee) August 26, 2018
Danny Lyons, Aadon Benson, Ryan Smith & Matthew Merritt absolutely killed it. These are exactly the kind of people who sound like they know what our anthem means.
And needless to say, they got a lot of Twitter love.
Beautiful just beautiful
— Claudia Leon (@ckpleon8) August 26, 2018
Wow ,,, fantastic ! Sign them up now for the Super Bowl & Trumps next inauguration !!
— michael (@99freehold) August 26, 2018
This was such a great rendition! Gave me chills🤩 Incredibly talented young men.
— Teri (@4Irish1989) August 26, 2018
I don’t agree with everything our President does, but I do love these young boys & the way they sing the National Anthem. Great job!! Absolutely beautiful! 👍🇺🇸
— Pam (@Pam2189) August 27, 2018
The great thing is that you saw almost no hate for these young men on social media. You saw nobody saying that posting their rendition of the national anthem was a politicized move that divided our country. Nobody said this was making things worse.
That’s because the anthem doesn’t. Yes, I know — the protests are meant to shake us out of our apathy or something. But they don’t. What they do is make us all realize how petty the protesters’ concerns must be if the only way they can express them is by disrespecting the national anthem.
And no, it’s not just a song that old white men on the couch demand that people respect because they’re racists.
I know men and women who came back from war with PTSD and physical injuries. Almost every one of them knows a fellow soldier who committed suicide because they couldn’t take it. The anthem means something to them.
I know police officers who go to work every day to serve communities across America, only to have rich athletes take a knee because radicals pretend everything about law enforcement is racist. The anthem means something to those officers.
Then there are millions of other patriotic Americans for whom this country’s ideals mean something — and so does its anthem. And thank God we have people who can sing it like this.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
