January 2011
So back in 1988 Tae Kwon Do debuted as a "demonstration sport" in Seoul, Korea--a nation that takes Martial Arts deadly serious. My kicking karate buddy Arlene Limas, from the tough town of Chicago, won an Olympic gold medal.
Standing on the elevated podium the exuberant lanky Polish/Mexican lady in her crisp white uniform patiently waits for the sound system to play the "Star Spangled Banner"...and waits, and waits.
Finally, she single-handedly starts singing our national anthem acappella--quickly joined by friends and family in the crowd--and shorty thereafter by almost everybody in the cavernous arena.
And that was 13 years before the world changed. At the normally routine Buckingham Palace changing of the guard, on an extraordinary afternoon just after 9/11, our former enemy for the first and only time in their exceedingly long history struck up "The Star Spangled Banner."
A Brit newspaper reported
The little girl was adorable, and the changing of the guards must have been quite moving to see them play our national antheim.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the posting Larry!
My pleasure. Nice to be reminded every now and then about how truly great our country is.
ReplyDeleteAnd on that day, many in Amherst celebrated behind closed doors...
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't go that far. But a few too many thought we brought it on ourselves or something stupid like that.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't go that far.
ReplyDeleteI will. At the time, we had an actual Hamas chapter in the Grad Dorm...
But a few too many thought we brought it on ourselves or something stupid like that.
Let me see: Jennie Trenchean, Bill Israel, and a few more of the UM faculty....
More than a few more.
ReplyDelete