Sometimes, something you do as a routine becomes surprisingly meaningful.
That happened to me last Nov. 4, when the St. Louis Blues hockey team played the Toronto Maple Leafs and my barbershop singing group, the City Voices Chorus, was invited to sing the national anthem.
The Blues are very professional in the way the organization treats the anthem assignment. They mic-tested us, gave us careful instructions about where to stand and when to start singing, with a 3-2-1 count to get rolling.
As our amplified voices rang out, reaching every cranny of the Scottrade (now Enterprise) Center, my heart rose and tears came to my eyes.
It was a powerful moment of revelation on how much this country of ours means to me. Like just about everyone in America, I’ve sung the anthem countless times, but I never before felt quite that degree of immersion.
There’s another Jefferson County resident – 98-year-old Helen Killoren – who feels the way I did in that moment every day of her life, and she makes no secret about it.
Today is Flag Day, the annual observance that commemorates June 14, 1777, when the Second Continental Congress voted to adopt an American flag to serve as a military standard: “Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
We’ve added 37 stars since then, but that earliest version is pretty similar to the banner we still wave.
Mrs. Killoren lets the breeze that wafts by her Barnhart mailbox wave her banner. A large American flag hangs from a pole attached to her mailbox stanchion, and it’s there every day, rain or shine.
The flag I saw flying outside Helen’s home last week is something of a mystery to her. She recently went on vacation to visit one of her three daughters, and when she returned, an anonymous benefactor had erected a new flag in place of her old one, which Helen acknowledged had become a bit tattered over the years.
She wrote to the Leader about how much she appreciated that kind gesture, and how much the flag always meant to both her and her late husband, Jack Killoren. They married in 1943, during the time he served in World War II as a first lieutenant in the Medical Administrative Corps, helping to care for and transport wounded soldiers from Europe.
In 1957, the couple bought their first home, and from that day forward, they displayed the flag.
Sixty-one years later, and 23 years after her husband’s death, Helen, a former real estate agent and a 37-year resident of Jefferson County, keeps up the tradition.
“I do it in memory of all of the veterans,” she said. “So people will know in their busy life going by that this is a wonderful country we are living in, a country that our veterans suffered and died for.”
Helen’s eyesight has become a trouble – she has to use a magnifying glass to read her Leader these days – but she keeps up with the news.
She is sympathetic to the cause of National Football League players who have kneeled during renditions of the national anthem to protest prejudice in our culture. She believes the Civil War didn’t do much to solve racism, although it’s a terrible pity.
“What makes the white people think they are any better than the black or yellow or brown people?” she asked. “Why is another person on earth better than any other person? God created us all, and we should all be treated equally, all over the world. It’s the truth.”
But she has a message she would like protesters to understand.
“When prejudice happens, it’s the people who are at fault; it’s not the country. It’s a different thing entirely.”
And so, she wishes everyone would stand and sing when the national anthem is played. Go ahead and fight back against prejudice, but don’t do it in ways that demean America, she advises.
“I don’t understand their (the protesting football players’) thinking,” Helen said. “It boggles my mind.”
The NFL reportedly saw a 10 percent decline in its TV fan base last season, and one would think that is at least partly tied to the tempest over football players taking a knee during the anthem.
When business interests take a hard tackle, you can expect the business to react, and the NFL has done so. New rules will require players on the field to stand for the anthem, but allow those who don’t wish to do so to stay off-field.
That’s a sensible compromise. It doesn’t violate players’ First Amendment rights and it keeps football games from being used as a protest stage.
Everyone in the workplace has to follow rules to keep a job. So, while all Americans have the right to protest, including famous people, why not make your voice heard off the clock?
I wish the disenchanted football players could do what Helen has done – separate the concept of America and its essential goodness from the behavior of those who espouse division and hate.
“That flag represents all the people – everyone,” Helen said.
Wise words from a wise woman.
