On Tuesday, the members of the City Council and other city officials and citizens assembled to hear Mayor John Hickenlooper’s annual “State of the City” message. City Council president Michael Hancock introduced jazz singer Rene Marie to sing the national anthem. Instead, she sang “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” a song known in many circles as the “black national anthem.”
The incident might have passed as a mild embarrassment if city officials had condemned the hijacking of the event, but that hasn’t happened.
Instead, Mayor Hickenlooper issued a polite statement expressing disappointment and regret at the “distraction.” He said he called the performer. According to the Mayor, she apologized to him and said that she had not intended to make a political statement.
Mr. Mayor, what else can you call it but a political statement? In other public statements since the incident, the performer was not only not apologetic or remorseful; she elaborated and defended her political viewpoint. She is angry at America for its shortcomings. She does not like singing the national anthem because it makes no mention of the suffering of black people. She is proud to have hijacked the event to promote her political agenda. She admits she deliberately failed to tell officials of her plans in advance.
All right, that is her agenda. Now, what is Denver’s agenda? Will anyone in Denver officialdom make any statement condemning her behavior, or should we simply accept the Mayor’s statement that the behavior was “inappropriate”?
Governor Ritter told talk radio audiences on Wednesday morning that he had heard the singer perform the same song at a recent Denver Prayer Luncheon. The interesting thing is that on that occasion, she sang it to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner.
That tells us that in all probability, many city officials were familiar with the performer. SO, it is quite possible that someone involved in the city’s invitation knew of her plans to substitute her own anthem for the national anthem.
But at this point, advance approval of singer Renee Marie’s conduct is not the issue. What is important is that she chose this official Denver event as the venue for her political statement and that no one in Denver officialdom can muster the courage to condemn it.
The performer obviously believed that “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is a better reflection of the patriotic spirit of multicultural Denver than our national anthem.
She may be right. Why should a song written by a “dead white male,” Francis Scott Key, be sung at every civic ceremony? In the spirit of diversity, next year we may hear a performer sing a Native American anthem, followed by a Hispanic-American anthem and an Asian-American anthem.
A full day after the event, Denver city officials have yet to condemn the performer’s behavior for what it is: an outrageous insult to the citizens of Denver and the entire country. If they do not do so soon, citizens of Colorado will be tempted to conclude that Rene Marie was right in her calculation.
In fact, I suspect that right now, someone on the planning committee for the Democrat National Convention is asking how they can work her into the program. She would be asked to perform there not, of course, as a substitute for the national anthem, but to affirm her right to “artistic expression.” Go for it, girl.
Tom Tancredo of Littleton represents Colorado’s 6th Congressional District.
