When you see a story about thousands of high schoolers on YouTube after their performance in a local hotel, it doesn’t sound like it will end well.

This time it ended perfectly.

Michelle Johnson filmed a few minutes of the participants of the Kentucky All State Choir competition rallying in the 18-floor atrium at 11 pm to provide a stunning impromptu rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. Her highlight has gone “viral” (its been shared more than 500,000 times on Facebook) which has also made last year’s full video famous.

Reports say it is a tradition the students repeat every night each year. It is certainly possible to sing words beautifully without having any connection to them or belief in their value. One can hope that their voluntary and beautiful rendition of our Nation’s anthem even slightly speaks to the character within them.

On military bases around the world, the duty day ends with the National Anthem, and Taps closes the day near 11 pm.

Seems like a fitting tribute.

Well done.

As an aside, some people forget there are actually more verses to the American national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner.  It ends with this:

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov’d homes and the war’s desolation;
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

With reference to Maggie’s Notebook.

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