Taking A Knee

On July 3, 2025, as Congress was approving a budget that, to many of us, symbolizes the end of our democracy, I published a special edition blog for Independence Day. It is a parody of our national anthem written as a message to MAGA voters. If you haven’t yet, please read it. It’s a bitter rebuke of those who wave the flag the highest even as their choice of leadership of our nation defiles it.

My relationship with the anthem has long been fraught with ambivalence, but I did not realize the depth of it until I read my version to my Iranian born hospice nurse. Perhaps she can be excused for not knowing the real lyrics, but it is inexcusable that two thirds of Americans cannot recite them from memory.

When I recited the actual words of our song while explaining their history and meaning, I was surprised to find myself so filled with a mixture of pride and disappointment that my voice broke and my eyes filled with tears.

Long before football players did it, I started “taking a knee” when the anthem played prior to televised sporting events by muting the sound on my TV. That was not out of disrespect, but rather out of deep respect and my feeling that the anthem is disrespected when it is rolled out for every piddling occasion and, more often than not, either the melody or the lyrics, or both are performed incorrectly to boot.

I need not go on about how America has reneged for so long and in so many ways on its high flung promises. I am sure most of my readers know what I’m talking about, so I will say only this. Let us hope that somehow we will extricate ourselves from the morass we have permitted ourselves to wade into.

Meanwhile, the least we can do is to learn the words and to honor the meaning of our sacred national anthem.

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A personal note to my devoted readers who know I have a progressive terminal neurologic illness:

While blog ideas continue to roil my mind, it is rapidly becoming more physically difficult to compose and to post them. There are a couple in the hopper ready for release. I will expedite posting them over the coming week. They may or may not be the final ones, but if they are, you can still browse the web site for those you may have missed. It is paid for and will remain active until spring 2026. My family might compile them into a book, but that’s a big maybe.

Also, don’t forget to view the music videos of my original songs on You Tube, @ndovberg4964

You, my loyal readers, have given me the great pleasure and honor of sharing in my musings, and I, yes even I, am at a loss for words to express the gratitude and love I feel for you all. Live long, live well and never stop fighting for what you believe in.