{"id":298,"date":"2009-04-16T09:28:13","date_gmt":"2009-04-16T13:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2009\/04\/16\/ejected-from-a-ball-game-for-bathroom-break-during-god-bless-america\/"},"modified":"2009-04-16T09:28:13","modified_gmt":"2009-04-16T13:28:13","slug":"ejected-from-a-ball-game-for-bathroom-break-during-god-bless-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2009\/04\/16\/ejected-from-a-ball-game-for-bathroom-break-during-god-bless-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Ejected from a Ball Game for Bathroom Break During “God Bless America”"},"content":{"rendered":"

A baseball fan filed suit yesterday<\/a> against the New York Yankees for ejecting him from a game last year during the singing of \u201cGod Bless America.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have never understood why we sing the national anthem at sporting events.  What\u2019s so patriotic about a baseball or football game?  <\/p>\n

The tradition began in the 1918 World Series, according to one source<\/a>, when the live band during the seventh inning stretch erupted unprompted into the Star-Spangled Banner, which was not declared the national anthem until 1931.  Fans applauded and when the series returned to Boston from Chicago, the Red Sox owner scheduled the song to be played before the game.  But until WW II, it was only played during special games.  Once technology allowed for pre-recorded renditions and to support the troops, the song became a prelude to every baseball game.  Other sports eventually picked up the tradition.<\/p>\n

Then after 9\/11, teams started playing \u201cGod Bless America\u201d during the seventh-inning stretch.  But the Yankees took this forced display of patriotism one step further, forbidding fans from leaving their seats during its playing.  <\/p>\n

Enter \u2013 or should I say exit — Bradford Campeau-Laurion.  According to his suit against the Yankees and the New York police, he left his seat to use the bathroom during a game last August and was stopped by New York police and thrown out of the stadium.<\/p>\n

The ACLU has taken up his case.  He says he shouldn\u2019t be forced to be patriotic according to others\u2019 standards or to be religious.  He has good company.<\/p>\n

\n

Campeau-Laurion said in the interview he told the police \u201c\u2019I don\u2019t care about \u2018God Bless America.\u2019 I don\u2019t believe that\u2019s grounds constitutionally for being dragged out of a baseball game.\u201d <\/p>\n

He declined to characterize himself as either an atheist or agnostic. <\/p>\n

\u201cI simply don\u2019t have any religious beliefs,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Irving Berlin, who wrote \u201cGod Bless America,\u201d was an agnostic, according to \u201cIrving Berlin: A Daughter\u2019s Memoir,\u201d written by his daughter Mary Ellin Barrett and published in 1994. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Try doing anything but stand quietly and look respectful during the singing of the anthem or \u201cGod Bless America.\u201d  One is forced to display this contrived patriotism.  <\/p>\n

It reminds me of our son\u2019s high school policy regarding the moment of silence students are required to display before class starts.  No one, the school administration said, must adhere to the moment of silence, but they are asked instead to \u201cremain quiet\u201d during it.  In other words, you don\u2019t have to be silent, just keep quiet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A baseball fan filed suit yesterday against the New York Yankees for ejecting him from a game last year during the singing of \u201cGod Bless America.\u201d I have never understood why we sing the national anthem at sporting events.  What\u2019s so patriotic about a baseball or football game?  The tradition began in the 1918 World… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[102,115],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}