Let's Talk about the Rushingbrook Children's Choir

[bill_daniels]

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattve...nthem-n2624033

Here’s What Caused the Capitol Police to Shut Down a Children's Choir Singing the Star-Spangled Banner
Matt Vespa

June 04, 2023 7:05 AM

I saw the video but thought it would be wise to wait a bit in case this was a misunderstanding or someone jumping to conclusions. It was a little bit of both for the Rushingbrook Children’s Choir. The acoustics were terrific for this rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. The members of this troupe were inside the Capitol Rotunda but were interrupted by police officers who briefly shut down the performance. Yes, you read that right: the Capitol Police intervened.

Initial reports were that police told the choir the song might be offensive. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) described the event as “unacceptable” and hopes to see them again performing the national anthem inside the Capitol soon. Capitol Police said the incident was due to a “miscommunication” (via NY Post):

The incident involving the Rushingbrook Children’s Choir and Capitol Police occurred on May 26 in the Capitol Building’s National Statuary Hall, as members of the Greenville, South Carolina-based chorus sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Video footage of the event shows the conductor of the group, David Rasbach, cutting the young singers off before they could finish singing the patriotic tune.



Capitol Police told The Post on Friday that singing is not usually allowed in the building and that officers were not aware McCarthy had approved the performance.

“Although popup demonstrations and musical performances are not allowed in the U.S. Capitol without the proper approval, due to a miscommunication, the U.S Capitol Police were not aware that the Speaker’s Office had approved this performance,” the agency said. “We apologize to the choir for this miscommunication that impacted their beautiful rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner and their visit to Capitol Hill.”

Rasbach told The Daily Signal that the female officer insisted the singing was a demonstration and later alleged that “some people were offended” by the performance.

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[DAB]

you'd think they'd have some official looking "permission slip", like an engraved hall pass, so the narcs wouldn't bother them.....

[Onebadcad]

Goggled for a liberal take to see if other factors, found no articles, so I am assuming there is no excuses and no explanations, just yet another anti-American gov agent crushing all things Our Great Nation was built upon.

[bill_daniels]

Originally Posted by Onebadcad

Goggled for a liberal take to see if other factors, found no articles, so I am assuming there is no excuses and no explanations, just yet another anti-American gov agent crushing all things Our Great Nation was built upon.

YouTube

[DAB]

about average, gov't screws up the simplest things.

[bill_daniels]

Originally Posted by DAB

about average, gov't screws up the simplest things.

I thought it was nice that they simply crushed the children's spirits and ruined their trip to the Capitol, vs. actually machine gunning them down, which is really what they wanted to do, I'm sure.

[aerovette]

If it was the Capitol Police, they are lucky they weren't just shot at.

[DAB]

cuff em Dano, haul them out of here by their ankles.....stat!

[snide]

Anyone who is offended by the National Anthem should be deported.

[bill_daniels]

Originally Posted by snide

Anyone who is offended by the National Anthem should be deported.

Any decent person respects a national anthem.

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[Unsuspicious]

Nobody was offended. That was the guards rationalizing after the fact and avoiding accountability. "We got a call", "someone complained" etc

And it had nothing to do with the song choice, obviously. At least be mad about the right thing.

[Tikiman]

Originally Posted by Unsuspicious

Nobody was offended. That was the guards rationalizing after the fact and avoiding accountability. "We got a call", "someone complained" etc

And it had nothing to do with the song choice, obviously. At least be mad about the right thing.

Every communist democrat in that building was offended. The National Anthem to a democrat is like Holy Water to Granny Scandals. Horribly triggering and possibly fatal. Now, had they been singing a song praising Satan, that would have been fine.

[Unsuspicious]

There are plenty of real issues to be mad about, moaning about a miscommunication like this is precisely the victim mentality you angry people like to accuse others of.

[Tikiman]

It won't be long before the democrats demand that the US flag be removed because it "triggers" too many of them.

[mrvette]

Originally Posted by Unsuspicious

There are plenty of real issues to be mad about, moaning about a miscommunication like this is precisely the victim mentality you angry people like to accuse others of.

Yeh, well, after all the crap that's been going on for the last few years, I certainly can NOT blame the normal/patriotic folks for exploding over this....it smelled just like another commie move to ME also.....

and indeed there was NO REASON for the cops to have taken any action, common cents 101........

[Tikiman]

Next thing you know, democrats will ban singing hymns in church because someone might offend the atheists.

[DJ_Critterus]

Originally Posted by aerovette

If it was the Capital Police, they are lucky they weren't just shot at.

or imprisoned for years without Habeus Corpus or a trial.

[Unsuspicious]

Since we're all going to assume malice when stupidity suffices, maybe whoever approved it intentionally failed to follow notification protocol in letting security forces know about it and putting it on their schedule, just to see the outcome. In which case the approver was using these kids as bait for a stunt.

[Tikiman]

Originally Posted by Unsuspicious

Since we're all going to assume malice when stupidity suffices, maybe whoever approved it intentionally failed to follow notification protocol in letting security forces know about it and putting it on their schedule, just to see the outcome. In which case the approver was using these kids as bait for a stunt.

That sounds like something a scumbag leftist would do.

[bill_daniels]

Originally Posted by Tikiman

It won't be long before the democrats demand that the US flag be removed because it "triggers" too many of them.

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/12/92227...ot-interesting

We Asked Americans How They Feel About The U.S. Flag. It Got Interesting.
October 12, 20208:02 AM ET
Heard on All Things Considered

By Brian Mann

On a fall afternoon, Mark Hurley, a retired Army and Marine veteran, was doing chores in his yard in Bennington, Vt. Hurley has two American flags flying in front of his home.

"It means tons to me," he said. "Regardless of what your opinion is on life, we are Americans we should be proud of that over everything."

Hurley, who is white and leans conservative, told NPR he sees the flag as something sacred, a symbol you salute, not a symbol you question. He worries his kind of patriotism is being eroded these days, in part because so many people are focused on issues of race.

"Let's talk slavery first. That happened two or three hundred years ago," Hurley said. "We should forget that, be beyond that. To me, as long as people are calling themselves African Americans or Jewish Americans, they're allowing the racism. They should be saying they're Americans, period."

This summer, the country's long struggle with systemic racism erupted, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets. When NPR asked Americans to share their thoughts about the U.S. flag and what it means to them right now, questions of race and identity came up again and again.

Many white Americans who described themselves as more conservative said they still see the U.S. flag as fairly simple and unifying.

"I think it's a symbol of the shared values and ideals of the United States," said Erin Doughtie, a white woman who works for a seed company in Clovis, Calif.

Denise and Kevin Lopez took their U.S. flag down for a time but after a family discussion put it up again outside their home.
Courtesy of Denise and Kevin Lopez

Like Hurley, she voiced impatience with people who see the flag as a symbol burdened by racism: "The United States is still pretty much the most equal place you could have for people of different backgrounds. For people to compare the U.S. to an ideal is unfair."

But many of the roughly 1,800 people who responded to NPR's call out, especially people of color and those who lean more liberal, said it's not that simple. They told us the American flag comes with baggage that can't be ignored.

"With all the protests and the Black Lives Matter stuff happening, we took the flag down for a little bit," said Kevin Lopez, who works for Microsoft in San Pedro, Calif.

This summer, Lopez said, events like George Floyd's death in police custody shook their family. Kevin has Mexican and Irish heritage, his wife Denise is Black.

"It was pretty disheartening for a little while, with the way our people we're being treated," he said, explaining their decision to pull down the flag.

"And then Denise was the one who brought it up and said I want to revisit this. We had a family discussion about it."

After some soul-searching, the Lopez's decided to raise the flag again. But for them questions of racial justice aren't ancient history. They're a defining part of being American right now.


Denise Lopez, an artist and designer, said for her the decision to reclaim the flag felt like part of that struggle.

"It was like a pit in my stomach," she said. "It was almost like, is it now like what the Confederate flag felt like for my parents? And I was like no, I'm not going to feel that way every time I see an American flag."

We heard a lot from people who shared this worry the U.S. flag has been weaponized, deliberately redefined as a more conservative symbol owned by some Americans more than others.

"We had a Black Lives Matter rally in our town and there were a lot of people driving by with American flags on the back of their pickup trucks as a counter-protest," said Ben Eagleson, a car mechanic who lives in Olney, Ill. "It was like those of us supporting Black Lives Matter were somehow un-American or something."

Eagleson, who is white, said he took his American flag down for a time, but it's flying again now on a pole outside him home.

An Vu, the son of Vietnamese immigrants, sent NPR a photo of the U.S. flag he flies next to his garage. He says he misses the time after the Sept. 11 attacks when the country felt more unified.


"I'd let something that had always been for me a positive symbol take on a negative meaning and I guess I just decided to reclaim it," he said.

Regardless of race or political persuasion, a lot of Americans we heard from say they do see the U.S. flag as a hopeful and beautiful symbol, even in a time of deep national division when it has different meanings for different people.

An Vu told NPR he flies the flag over his front porch in Dearborn, Mich. Vu is a business analyst, the son of immigrants from Vietnam who first flew the U.S. flag when he was a kid after the terror attacks in 2001.

"I hope that flying the flag can return to what we felt like after [Sept. 11]," he said. "The sense of unity, the way were able to grow together after that was really amazing."

A lot of people told NPR that kind of national unity and shared meaning feels elusive now. For that reason, many have chosen to fly the flag next to other symbols to give it more personal context.

For some, that means raising the Stars and Stripes along with a "Make American Great Again" banner. For others, the American flag is flying alongside a gay pride banner or Black Lives Matter sign.

Hey Ben....here's your sign.