Vile accompaniment to national anthem?

Subject: Vile accompaniment to national anthem?
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 Dec 01 - 11:26 AM

"It induces the patriotic adrenalin; that's great, every nation should come together like this. What I fear is they are all going to get together and beat us again. The worst part is they would be singing 'The Star-Spangled Banner' while they are beating us." -- Yassir Hassan, a Pakistani student in North Carolina, quoted in the _Washington Post National Weekly Edition_.

I think I can reassure Mr Hassan on that point. Guess the fraction of bullies in the U.S. (substantial, I dare say, but smaller than in some other countries I have read about). Multiply by the fraction who know the words to (say) one stanza of the "Star-Spangled Banner". Multiply the result by the fraction who have a range of an octave and a fifth. I think you will come up with an estimated number so minuscule that the police (who, by the way, have arrested the lout who hit Mr Hassan with a beer bottle) will have no trouble keeping an eye on them.

I actually know two of the four stanzas all the way thru, which I suppose makes me a musical superpatriot. I wish I were as brave & levelheaded as Mr Hassan; and I wish him well.