Interesting. But frankly, I wish we would return to the custom of having everyone in the stadium join in singing. It bugs me that the National Anthem has become more of an opportunity for some soloist to show off his or her tonsils than a civic ritual that bound together a large group of people. My dad used to take me to high school football and baseball games when I was a kid, and there was something about several thousand people singing the "Star-Spangled Banner" together that really moved me. It still does. And it seems to me that given the Left's ongoing attempts to balkanize this country into a squabbling assortment of special-interest groups in the name of "diversity," we need some kind of unifying civic ritual more than ever.

God Bless America . . .