sd gross
05-07-2011, 03:26 PM
:dancingrose::dancingrose::dancingrose::rose1::rose1::dancingrose::dancingrose::dancingrose::rose1::rose1:
MY OLD KENTUCKY HOMILY
Called the most exciting two minutes in Sports, the Kentucky Derby was inaugurated in 1875, and has been run at Churchill Downs in Louisville Kentucky. The 1 1/4 mile race run on a dirt left-handed track, oozes with tradition, and is virtually a 180 from the life lived by chiefly mining families, in the Hollers of Harlan County. Ladies wearing elaborate bonnets and gents dressed in tails shmooze while sucking down Mint Juleps, the infield reels with a crowd of drunk 'spectators' who have little chance of seeing the race, the Governor of Kentucky presents the trophy to the winner, who is draped in a wreath of 554 roses and the University of Louisville Marching Band plays Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home" while the pumped up crowd cheerfully, sometimes sentimentally sings along. Except that they get the words wrong.
Originally titled "Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night!", and sometimes also titled "My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night!") the familiar ditty is the state song of Kentucky. It was published by Stephen Foster in 1853 and was adopted by the Kentucky General Assembly as the official state song on March 19, 1928.
The song describes a scene of life on a slave plantation, and the highly regarded abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, believed the song was sympathetic to slaves.
In 1986, the Kentucky General Assembly adopted a version unlikely to cause offense in which the original word "darkies" was changed to "people. Of course they never considered whether putting gay people in the spotlight (in front of a global audience) would make anyone uncomfortable.
I really don't wish to offend anyone (well, maybe sometimes....) but it seems to be getting more and more difficult to avoid doing so. "Huckleberry Finn" recently underwent a metamorphosis, a sort of cultural cleansing if you will, because a word regularly characterized as "The N Word" appears in it more than 200 times. This modification gave birth to endless scholarly dissertations which explored every aspect of this action, and good arguments were proffered by both sides. We hate to offend anyone, but equally troublesome is altering works of art, especially, by established and revered artists, because they're no longer P.C. So how do we deal with this dilemma. I'm certainly not for covering David's privates with a fig, but there are those out there with skins so thin you can see their spleens.
Gloria says leave the "D" word out of "My Old Kentucky Home" and I'm thinking, it was written 150 years ago in a spirit that was in no way racist or malicious, and we should accept it for what it is, in its original form.
So....today is Derby Day, and I'm dying to hear what anyone else thinks about all this. Everyone has opinions (which can be quite revealing), and I'm looking forward to hearing yours!
stephen
For those of you unfamiliar with Foster's original lyrics, verse one follows.
"Verse 1
The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home,
'Tis summer, the darkies are gay;
The corn-top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom,
While the birds make music all the day.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,
All merry, all happy and bright;
By 'n' by Hard Times comes a-knocking at the door,
Then my old Kentucky home, goodnight.
MY OLD KENTUCKY HOMILY
Called the most exciting two minutes in Sports, the Kentucky Derby was inaugurated in 1875, and has been run at Churchill Downs in Louisville Kentucky. The 1 1/4 mile race run on a dirt left-handed track, oozes with tradition, and is virtually a 180 from the life lived by chiefly mining families, in the Hollers of Harlan County. Ladies wearing elaborate bonnets and gents dressed in tails shmooze while sucking down Mint Juleps, the infield reels with a crowd of drunk 'spectators' who have little chance of seeing the race, the Governor of Kentucky presents the trophy to the winner, who is draped in a wreath of 554 roses and the University of Louisville Marching Band plays Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home" while the pumped up crowd cheerfully, sometimes sentimentally sings along. Except that they get the words wrong.
Originally titled "Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night!", and sometimes also titled "My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night!") the familiar ditty is the state song of Kentucky. It was published by Stephen Foster in 1853 and was adopted by the Kentucky General Assembly as the official state song on March 19, 1928.
The song describes a scene of life on a slave plantation, and the highly regarded abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, believed the song was sympathetic to slaves.
In 1986, the Kentucky General Assembly adopted a version unlikely to cause offense in which the original word "darkies" was changed to "people. Of course they never considered whether putting gay people in the spotlight (in front of a global audience) would make anyone uncomfortable.
I really don't wish to offend anyone (well, maybe sometimes....) but it seems to be getting more and more difficult to avoid doing so. "Huckleberry Finn" recently underwent a metamorphosis, a sort of cultural cleansing if you will, because a word regularly characterized as "The N Word" appears in it more than 200 times. This modification gave birth to endless scholarly dissertations which explored every aspect of this action, and good arguments were proffered by both sides. We hate to offend anyone, but equally troublesome is altering works of art, especially, by established and revered artists, because they're no longer P.C. So how do we deal with this dilemma. I'm certainly not for covering David's privates with a fig, but there are those out there with skins so thin you can see their spleens.
Gloria says leave the "D" word out of "My Old Kentucky Home" and I'm thinking, it was written 150 years ago in a spirit that was in no way racist or malicious, and we should accept it for what it is, in its original form.
So....today is Derby Day, and I'm dying to hear what anyone else thinks about all this. Everyone has opinions (which can be quite revealing), and I'm looking forward to hearing yours!
stephen
For those of you unfamiliar with Foster's original lyrics, verse one follows.
"Verse 1
The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home,
'Tis summer, the darkies are gay;
The corn-top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom,
While the birds make music all the day.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,
All merry, all happy and bright;
By 'n' by Hard Times comes a-knocking at the door,
Then my old Kentucky home, goodnight.