Fla. Town Officials Apologize Over Song

[IChing]

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- City officials apologized for playing a song during Fourth of July celebrations that was mixed with voiceovers of 911 calls from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

About 70,000 people had gathered to celebrate the Fourth of July when the song "God Bless the U.S.A." was played. The version had voices of people recorded during the terror attacks.

One voice on the mix said, "Oh my God, another plane has just hit." Another said, "Some of the casualties are in the collapsed building."

People at the celebrations said the mood of the night changed when the song was pla


"Everybody was in a really good mood, and all of a sudden this cloud of doom," said Siobhan Mangan. "It just seemed terribly inappropriate."

>>>>snip
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRF_FOURTH_OF_JULY_APOLOGY?SITE=MNMAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-07-14-00-17-28

What the hell is wrong with Florida.

[Cha]

1. I wonder whose

demagogic recording that was?

[atomicdawg38]

2. In Bethany Okla...

It was the boot is your ass song with Bush voice over and a lecture how under God should stay in the pledge during the fireworks display.

[leftofcool]

14. And I'm proud to be an Okie.........

okay, not from Muskogee but Norman and I am not surprised at this thang in Bethany.

Left of Cool

[DanCa]

3. Unbelievable

It's time to get out the giant saw and send fla out to the sea.

[Judi Lynn]

7. I know someone with a lot of time on his hands and a saw!

He might as well make himself useful for once! He could accomplish something good for America before leaving office (if we can hope he'll leave someday).

[Javaman]

17. Ever notice how clean his gloves are?

For someone who clears alot of brush, he has the cleanest gloves I have ever seen.

[DanCa]

22. Wow

That picture just scares the h e double hockey sticks out of me.

[XemaSab]

25. "Need some wood?"

also, note well that all the people in the BG are wearing hard hats, but * ain't.

[Art_from_Ark]

19. Like Bugs Bunny did in "Rebel Rabbit"

[Voltaire99]

23. Great post!

Couldn't we sell it off to Mexico, though? ;-)

[Voltaire99]

24. Sick, sick, sick 9/11 fetishism. In our neighborhood...

...some sick fuck has stenciled "Remember 9/11" over his kid's basketball hoop.

They love it, these disgusting reactionaries: they want to wallow in what they perceive to be the justification for endless war. It's an almost erotic obsession, a mania.

As Norman Mailer memorably said, "My feeling is that you're patriotic about America if you're obsessed with America because it's a democracy, and its obligation is to improve all the time, not to stop and take bows and smell its armpits and say 'Ambrosia!'"

[Gay Green]

29. Hand it over to Cuba

and build a Berlin Wall around it so noone could escape.

Of course, the Cuban citizens might not like it.

(on edit: add sentence)

[Goldmund]

4. .

:rofl:

Surreal.

[soup]

5. An apology

>>Vince Kendrick, Deerfield Beach's director of parks and recreation, took responsibility in a written apology.

"I have personally been touched by the war on terror through my son, a captain in the U.S. Air Force, who has lost friends who sacrificed their own lives to defend our country. We sincerely regret having offended attendees of our Fourth of July celebration," Kendrick said.

He did not name the employee who put the song in the lineup.

"If it was Memorial Day, no one would have minded," Kendrick said.<<
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/14/State/City_regrets_insertin.shtml

[democracyindanger]

6. Some apology

It'd be just as disgusting no matter what the holiday.

[Divernan]

8. His son's friends' lives were sacrificed for Haliburton's profits,

sadly, and NOT to defend our country. Someone try to explain in words of one syllable to this high level govt. official , i.e., small town Director of Parks and Recreation, that the hijackers on 911 were SAUDI ARABIAN, not Iraqis.

[soup]

11. You and democracyindanger

answered it very well. Thank you.

When I read 'the apology', my head exploded in 40 different directions, and so did any possible response. There was just so much wrong with it and on so many levels, there was no way I could put anything together.

[jbane]

9. Florida officially re-named...

The Peoples Republic of Dumbfuckistan

[soup]

12. Laughing out loud, literally.

So glad I wasn't sipping coffee at the same time, jbane.

I live here, so would that make us 'Dumbfuckistanians'???

:rofl:

[jbane]

21. Oops, didn't mean to insult you.

I live in Virginia, about as Red as a Red state can be so I don't have much room to talk. It seems however, as if you guys have all kinds of crazy shit happening to you. Be safe during this huricane season.

[iverglas]

26. was that a snowbird accent?

"The Peoples Republic of Dumbfuckistan"

Soviet Canuckistan. Surely it can't be a coincidence! ;)

We just about laughed ourselves sick up here when Pat Robertson came out with that one. Funniest damn thing all year; even 22 Minutes couldn't have beat it. I'll take yours home this evening!

[maxrandb]

10. God! I "Effing" Hate that Song!

Everytime I hear it I think; "well if you'd gladly stand up next to me, and defend Amurika, there's plenty of openings in the Army and Marine Corps".

It's like vinegar on your teeth, or like the Barney song. I can't even remember who wrote it, but it's generated enough "redneck, beer induced, crocodile tears" to flood Manhattan.

Guy's been milking that song for a good 20 years now. Hope to catch him on next seasons "Hit Me Baby One More Time".

So sappy it makes my teeth hurt.

[54anickel]

18. Wrote that POS in 85. Retreat from Lebannon, invade Grenada. Here's

an interesting tid-bit on the song. Perhaps we should start calling radio stations around the country and start requesting Waylon's "America" instead?

Then again, look how they've abused, misused and mininterpreted Springsteens "Born in the USA" album cuts.

http://www.soulofacitizen.org/articles/patrioticballads.htm

snip>

We were defending freedom, according to this view, when supporting dictators like Augusto Pinochet, Ferdinand Marcos, the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein, and the succession of Persian Gulf autocrats who helped turn bin Laden against us. We’re defending freedom while selling more weapons to more countries than any other nation in the world, and then being surprised when some end up aimed or used against us. We're defending freedom when the Justice Department recruits our friendly postman, meter reader, or cable technician to report on what we do, say, and read. When Greenwood sings, "There ain't no doubt I love this land. God Bless the USA," he never suggests what qualities of justice would redeem the love he declaims. He just says we need to be proud.

Greenwood wrote the song following the U.S. retreat from Lebanon and Reagan's invasion of Grenada, to reflect "the spirit of America being proud." It rose to a top-five country hit, and both the Democrats and Republicans invited him to sing it at their respective conventions. Greenwood turned them both down due to scheduling conflicts. But after letting Reagan staffers use "God Bless The USA" to frame their l8-minute campaign film, he began singing it at Republican rallies.

But Greenwood's is not the sole patriotic ballad to choose from. The late Waylon Jennings' "America" reached number six on the charts the year "God Bless the USA" first came out. Written by Sammy Johns, the song affirms connection to native soil, as Jennings repeats, "America, America," slowly and tenderly as if to a woman he loves; then admits, softly, "You've become a habit to me." But he also makes tough demands-recounting his own history as an Anglo yeoman "from down round Tennessee," then continuing, "But my brothers/ Are all black and white/ Yellow too/ And the red man is right/ To expect a little from you/ Promise and then follow through/ America."

Honoring promises of justice gives us problems. Our culture too often gives them lip service, then dismisses them by explaining, "We're sorry. This is the future. Get used to it." Yet we're stronger for respecting common ties, even if they raise difficult questions. Echoing Walt Whitman's poems of Brooklyn blacksmiths and welders, Jennings celebrates "all the men who build the big planes/ And who live through hardship and pain." But he also honors those "who would not fight/ In a war that didn't seem right," and a nation strong enough so "you let them come home." Once more questions are raised, about a past that's no longer so clean. He judges us wiser for respecting those who challenged their government-and might once again.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_in_the_U.S.A.

The title track, "Born in the U.S.A." is one of Springsteen's best known songs. Many have misinterpreted the song as a simple nationalistic anthem, while in reality, it is a song of protest depicting the hardships Vietnam veterans faced upon their return from the war. In spite of this, many politicians (notably including Ronald Reagan) have used the song without permission in their campaigns, and during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq many counterdemonstrators played the song opposite peace protests. In 2004, Senator John Kerry used "No Surrender" as his campaign theme song during his 2004 presidential campaign; both it and "Bobby Jean" reflect in part the departure of Steven Van Zandt from the E Street Band.

[Iris]

13. Can you imagine explaining those voice overs to a 6 year old and

then have him sit there and listen to and watch fireworks exploding?

Nice.

[liberal N proud]

15. That sound just like the video and song played at our church on

the Sunday before Independence Day.
I knew it wasn't something made up just in our church.

I commented following the service that I thought I had just gone to a Memorial Day service.

[newsamericanow]

16. Pretty sick

[AlCzervik]

20. Thats really disgusting.

[defiant1]

27. That's just sad...

:banghead:

[Gay Green]

28. What sort of sick morbid freeper came up with that mix

and what sort of "moran" decided to play it for the Independence Day festivities?

This is beyond disgusting. :grr: :mad: :nuke: