redblueamerica.com

Look, I'm not going to lie to you: I spent most of the Super Bowl yesterday at a poker table with my back turned to the TV screen. And as we arrived late to the Super Bowl party we attended, I missed the stirring video of NFL players, armed service members, and Pat Tillman's widow, Marie, reciting America's founding document in the pregame show. It's about six minutes long, but worth it. Show it to the kids. Twice.

Now, I happen to be listening to the Dennis Miller Show (it's tape-delayed in L.A.), and Miller's producer, "Sal," is going on about how he didn't like the pre-game patriotism at all. He thought it was out of place at a football game and called it "paper-mache patriotism." No way...

Sal thinks the video should have included hippies, Ted Kennedy, Ben and Jerry and maybe Oprah. But Miller loved it. "In my 54 years, I don't think I've ever heard it recited all the way through." (Note to the caller who said the Declaration is "more a nationalistic document than a political document." No. It. Isn't.)

Other reactions in the blogosphere (not at all universal in praise) here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

I cast my lot with the pro-Declaration recitation faction, and not just at football games.

Thanks to Peter Schramm at No Left Turns for calling my attention to the video.

Update: From a perceptive reader, on the subject of "paper-mache patriotism": "Well, maybe (Sal) meant contrived patriotism. It did seem forced and out of place to me anyway." I know what he meant. And at the top of the second hour of the Miller show, Dennis and Sal had a tense discussion about it. Sal was uncomfortable with the display, and thought that there was a hidden message in it: Either your with the troops or you're not patriotic. I don't believe it, but I know Sal isn't the only one to think so.

As for whether the video was forced and out of place, well, it's possible. I didn't see the pre-game so I don't really know what came before or after. But other than July 4, it's not too often you see or hear the Declaration recited. Seems to me that a major television event with 130 million or so viewers is a great opportunity for a little bit (six minutes! I mean, c'mon!) of civic education.