National Anthem

His basketball coach says Ryan Lee is a "man of few words. " His volleyball coach says Lee is "a quiet leader. " But the strong, silent approach doesn't always work for Lee when it comes to his dealings with the director of Cherry Hill West High School's award-winning a cappella group, Men of Note. "Ryan can give us that extra-low note," said Jonathan Flowers, a music teacher at Cherry Hill West. "He has such a deep voice. " Flowers calls Lee "a gentle giant," noting that the 6-foot-4 senior who specializes in gritty defensive play on the basketball court and thunderous spikes in volleyball has a personality that belies his muscular singing voice.

RE STANDING during the national anthem: I stand every time, and I think everyone should. It is a time to pay respect to all those men and women who have laid down their lives to protect us so that we continue to be able to speak our minds. And they continue to do so as I write. And, Mr. Parrish, those wonderful military people are black, white, Latino, Asian, etc. So stop standing when you feel like it and stand all the time. You'll feel better! Anthony Zajko, Glenolden I stand for the anthem - anywhere, anyplace, any time.

The battered reputation of Josh Howard took another hit this week when an online video surfaced showing the Dallas Mavericks forward disrespecting the national anthem. In a video posted on YouTube, Howard is shown on a football field at a charity flag football game this summer run by Allen Iverson. As the national anthem plays in the background, Howard approaches a camera and says: "The Star-Spangled Banner" is going on right now. I don't even celebrate that [expletive]. I'm black.

A week ago I wrote a column concerning the difficulty of singing "The Star-Spangled Banner. " I pointed out that even professional singers are hard- put to sing our national anthem to its conclusion. Several wrote to agree, others felt the song has been around too long to "change horses in midstream. " Some said they have always been offended singing a song about "bombs bursting in air. " One reader, who was born on Sept. 13 - the day the song was written (but not in the same year)

Several years ago, when I was working for a congregation of Catholic sisters, I visited their mission in Swaziland, a landlocked country in southern Africa. Swaziland is ruled by a king who has been known to make Parade Magazine's list of "world's worst dictators. " St. Philip's Mission is far removed from any city and most of the nearby homesteads have no running water or electricity. Rural Swaziland only began to get pit toilets in the 1990s. St. Philip's has a school, medical clinic, and orphanage that houses 127 children whose parents died from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, or other diseases that are all too common in region.

Leave it to the Daily News to support basketball player Chris Jackson's (alias Abdul-Rauf) decision to ignore the National Anthem. Wouldn't want to offend your black readers. Everyone knows this has nothing to do with religious beliefs and everything to do with expressing hatred for our country and our way of life. But even that isn't the point: The National Basketball Association is entitled to set rules, and those employed by the NBA are obliged to obey them. You at the News know about rules - no spitting on the presses, no cursing out loud; it works the same in the NBA and elsewhere.

DEAR ABBY: I was criticized recently for placing my right hand over my heart while the flag was flown and "The Star-Spangled Banner" was being sung. I was told that the hand over the heart is for the Pledge of Allegiance only, when the flag is present. Is that true, and what is the proper procedure? - St. Louis Patriot DEAR PATRIOT: No, it is not true. Whoever criticized you was ignorant of the Flag Code, as amended by the 94th Congress and approved July 7, 1976. According to the code, "During the rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed, all present . . . shall stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart.

The memories of Sept. 11 are still burned into the minds of baseball players. The unspeakable acts of terror occurred on a Tuesday morning while most late-sleeping players were just getting out of bed. There would be no games that night, no games that week, and that was a good thing, because no one felt like playing baseball. Eventually, the players took the field again. They wore American flags on their uniforms. They made generous donations to relief efforts. The season went on, pennant races pulsated, and the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees treated us to a magnificent World Series.

The basketball teams are at mid-court inside Conestoga High's gymnasium before a Friday night crowd of 500 rambunctious fans. In a moment, the place is quiet. It's time for Devon Cockerill to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner. " She stands with microphone in hand, not far from the scoring table. Her voice floats through Francis Scott Key's verses without the slightest quiver. Every note is right on target. Eyes stray from the flag on the gym's far wall back to Cockerill.

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, the Denver Nuggets star who has refused to stand during the national anthem this season because of his Islamic beliefs, was suspended without pay by the NBA. NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik said yesterday Abdul-Rauf violated a league rule that requires players, coaches and trainers to "stand and line up in a dignified posture" during the U.S. and Canadian anthems. "The NBA's rule on this point is very clear, and all our rules apply equally to all players," he said.

His basketball coach says Ryan Lee is a "man of few words. " His volleyball coach says Lee is "a quiet leader. " But the strong, silent approach doesn't always work for Lee when it comes to his dealings with the director of Cherry Hill West High School's award-winning a cappella group, Men of Note. "Ryan can give us that extra-low note," said Jonathan Flowers, a music teacher at Cherry Hill West. "He has such a deep voice. " Flowers calls Lee "a gentle giant," noting that the 6-foot-4 senior who specializes in gritty defensive play on the basketball court and thunderous spikes in volleyball has a personality that belies his muscular singing voice.

It took Alicia Keys 2 minutes, 36 seconds to butcher the national anthem before the Super Bowl. There are farmers who can butcher a hog in 2 minutes, 36 seconds and have time left over to set six strips of bacon sizzling in the skillet. If you bet "over" 2:05, you won from here to New Orleans. There's a sucker born in America every 24 seconds. A proposition bet on the length of the anthem is all the evidence you need. You want a second opinion? Take the prop on how many total hats the Harbaugh brothers would wear on the sidelines, none, one, two?

Beyoncé says she sang along NEW ORLEANS - Beyoncé faced the music at a news conference Thursday before the Super Bowl, admitting that she sang along to a recorded track when she performed the national anthem on Inauguration Day. The singer said she's a "perfectionist" and wanted her performance to be memorable. "Due to no proper sound check, I did not feel comfortable taking a risk. It was about the president and the inauguration, and I wanted to make him and my country proud, so I decided to sing along with my pre-recorded track, which is very common in the music industry.

WHEN WAS the exact moment you knew the Birds season was done? Was it Michael Vick's Week 10 concussion, or LeSean McCoy's in Week 11? Was it back in October, when coach Andy Reid canned Juan Castillo? Or December, when making the playoffs became statistically impossible? For lots of fans, it was mid-November. That's when we turned on our computers/tablets/smartphones and watched a 22-year-old Drexel student walk around FDR Park singing, "We Are Never Ever Gonna Win With Andy" to the tune of Taylor Swift's hit "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.

THERE ARE certain things that an American citizen should avoid if at all possible. One is singing the national anthem as if it were a stand-up joke, like Roseanne Barr did a few years ago in a sad and menopausal attempt to remain relevant. Another is bad-mouthing your country and your president, regardless of which party he belongs to, when you travel abroad, like the Dixie Chicks did during the Bush administration. Yet another is returning the bust of Churchill to the British even though you might have a personal grudge against the fellow and the country he hailed from.

Richard P. Quinn woke up Tuesday9-11 around 3 a.m., hours before he would deliver a speech in Moorestown recalling what he saw in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center 11 years ago - stunned and fearful faces and a sea of debris and ash all around him. stunned and fearful faces and the sea of debris and ash all around him as the World Trade Center towers fell 11 years ago. He was an FBI counterterrorism agent in New York, on...

JULIAN VANDERVELDE was heartened by the reaction he got from Eagles fans after singing the national anthem for Flight Night Sunday, praise flowing both at the Linc and later, on Twitter. "People in this city, if they think you suck, they're going to tell you," reserve guard Vandervelde (@BirdNerdJV73) said Monday. "Nobody's shy in Philadelphia, so I know that the national anthem was good, or else I'd be getting Twitter comments like, 'Oh, no, you suck, you should never sing again.' " Vandervelde had done the anthem thing before, for Bill and Hillary Clinton during a 2008 Iowa appearance, and the same for President Obama in Iowa City in 2010.

Several years ago, when I was working for a congregation of Catholic sisters, I visited their mission in Swaziland, a landlocked country in southern Africa. Swaziland is ruled by a king who has been known to make Parade Magazine's list of "world's worst dictators. " St. Philip's Mission is far removed from any city and most of the nearby homesteads have no running water or electricity. Rural Swaziland only began to get pit toilets in the 1990s. St. Philip's has a school, medical clinic, and orphanage that houses 127 children whose parents died from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, or other diseases that are all too common in region.

To get an idea of whether "The Star-Spangled Banner" is universally sung — or for that matter, known — just log on to YouTube. Boston Red Sox fans keep quiet until the national anthem's end, when they cheer. A group of youngsters at a Phillies game are asked if they know the words, and only a few raise their hands. Various checks of U.S. Olympic athlete footage show mostly lip-synching. We all know Christina Aguilera doesn't know her national anthem, at least when she lost her lyrics in game 6 of the 2010 NBA playoffs.

This year marks the bicentennial of a war that is largely forgotten but almost tore the United States apart. Most of us remember incidents from the war — the burning of Washington; Dolley Madison saving the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington; and the writing of "The Star-Spangled Banner. " But ask Americans in which conflict those incidents took place, and you can bet many will say the Revolutionary War. In reality, it was the War of 1812, which to many is as obscure as the Gadsden Purchase.