The Roanoke Slant

Roanoke Times, 7/3/08, Pg A2: Rene Marie, a Roanoke native, shocks Denver with her version of national anthem. I pulled a switcherroonie on them she told the Denver Post.
What an interesting choice of wording the Roanoke Times editors chose: “Her version of the national anthem”.
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A jazz singer shocked some Denver residents after replacing the words to the national anthem with those of the “Black National Anthem” during the annual State of the City address this week. Rene Marie (a Roanoker) was asked to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” before Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper delivered the annual address on Tuesday. Instead, and without prior disclosure, she sang the lyrics of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” — a hymn commonly referred to as the “Black National Anthem” — to the tune of the national anthem.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,375164,00.html
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Vote for Change! Too bad Michelle wasn’t there, they could have sung a duet that would have made Michelle proud one more time. Perhaps Denver (site of the upcoming Obama-DNC convention) should learn the words to the “new” national anthem before August. The rest of us have until Jan 20, 2009!
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This all fits in well with Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama’s master’s thesis at Princeton University (entitled Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community). That thesis has been "temporarily withdrawn" from Princeton's library until after this year's presidential election in November. What a nice touch, can’t say Princeton doesn’t support their alumni and so much for the transparency concept.
However – much of the thesis is on the internet and will be read and discussed by lots of folks. Some have already reached the view that the race-based focus and tenor of the thesis explains her “haven’t been proud of my country” comment.
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Some prior items:
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2008/04/obama-bitter-elitist.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2008/03/audacity-of-plausible-deniability.html
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