I was pleased to be invited by the Kingwood Tea Party to its August 19, 2013 Constitution Day Celebration at the Kingwood Civic Center. These functions of KWTP are often opportunities to meet some interesting people, hear some interesting views, and photograph some interesting politicians, like Ted Poe, Rick Perry and Ted Cruz.

Before any of the politicians spoke, Robin Lennon spoke, about the Tea Party and issues, then she led the audience in the pledges of allegiance to the flags of the United States and of Texas.

Then we began singing "The Star Spangled Banner":

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Here Ms Lennon interrupted our singing our national anthem, our anthem whether we are Democrat, Republican, Independent, moderate, conservative, liberal, black, white...

Ms Lennon stopped our singing our national anthem to try to make a labored point about how the next verses are so important considering where America is right now, and who is in the White House.

There was something so sadly disrespectful and cheap about that. I'd never known it to be done before, and I've been around for a bit, and participated in all kinds of events, political and otherwise.

After making her statement, Ms Lennon allowed us to finish:

Oh, say does that star spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

When my daughter was eight, she, her mother, and I spent a week in Washington and Baltimore. She and I took a bus from our hotel in downtown Baltimore out to Fort McHenry. We'd already seen the original banner at the Smithsonian. Christina and I walked aroung the fort, singing the anthem as I pointed out to her where the flag had flown, the location out on the bay where the British ship that held Key had been anchored. We imagined the rockets red glare and the bombs bursting in air above us.