Here is my letter to the News-Press

The Coca-Cola Company produced a commercial for the Super Bowl that honored our heritage with a rendition of “America the Beautiful.” This song is a paean to the beauties of our country. In an effort to include every part of what has made us great, Coca-Cola chose to include the various groups who have assimilated and become part of America. Different voices chimed in, some of them in other languages.

Now I hear there is a backlash. Self-styled “we were firsters” are angry and say that Coca-cola “dishonored” our national anthem. These people are so patriotic, that they didn’t even know our national anthem is “The Star Spangled Banner” and not “America the Beautiful.”

It is clear to me that this rendering was intended to highlight and honor the incredible richness of our culture made up of so many different backgrounds from so many different countries. But these false patriots are speaking against it, their opinion born of ignorance, and an entrenched bigotry.

The words of this patriotic song came from a poem by Katherine Lee Bates. Samuel A. Ward wrote the music. Words and music were combined and published as “America the Beautiful” in 1910. It celebrates the beauty and riches of our country and is a wonderful tribute. But it is not our anthem.

It is disgusting to realize that those who have spoken against the recognition of our diversity apparently believe they are the final definers of what it is to be an American. Their reaction is blatantly un-American. We were not founded on exclusivity. The words on the Statue of Liberty are “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …” Those words don’t say anything about hair and skin color. They don’t limit the invitation to white people only. These words are what have resonated around the world and made us the envy of every other culture.

And, unless you are a direct descendant of the American Indian, your parents or grandparents or great grand parents came from another country and were at one time, immigrants. I find it gross that any of us at all should be so infected by our “specialness” that we can’t see, not only where we came from, but how immigration has enhanced our growth and has contributed to our greatness. Instead, they want to deny newcomers the same opportunities their families have had.
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xx Teal