NHRA What Is Wrong With You

[Lenny5160]

I took this from a post that Bob Unkefer has going on Facebook. He made this post personally:

"Short version, technical difficulties in the tower (my bad) and drivers already strapped into Alky dragsters on a 100 degree day. The pledge has been said before to Honor our Country and reciting the Pledge TOGETHER pays the honor to our country that it is due. Like I said, not a HMP or NHRA decision, trying to pay Honor and keep the race moving along."

[BILL TAYLOR]

Originally Posted by Lenny5160

Didn't take long for many to go from just being grateful to go racing again to complaining about not hearing a song.

The reasoning behind not playing it is dumb, but I've never understood what the national anthem has to do with sports anyway.

I'm happy to report that the "SONG" was played yesterday at Atco. Calling the National Anthem a song tells me alot about you! Wake up and smell the coffee!

[MR DERBY CITY]

This OFFENDS the hell out of me...I am with JULIE, SHAME on you D5 and NHRA for allowing this to happen ??? We are racing at a DRAGSTRIP, just who would be OFFENDED by playing our glorious anthem.

[novassdude]

Originally Posted by Casey Miles

If you served, you'd understand. You are racing because people laid down their lives so you can now race in a country built on freedoms.

Served or not it is not just a song it is so much more than a song.

[Larry Hill]

I just talked to Rob Park and he said it was technical difficulties in the tower, he really made it clear it was not a political decision by anyone or organization to disrespect our Nation. He seems to be very Red White and Blue.

Thanks Rob in letting us non facebook races know what happened.

[jmcarter]

Appreciate your point Tony but having seen the sacrifice of many first hand, having zipped up plenty of body bags, having gone to most of the war memorials in DC, having watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier I am just thankful for any venue that plays the National Anthem. Adding the Pledge of Allegiance is altogether fitting as well, if you stand there and utter those words in my mind you’re professing you have skin in the game. Think if I attended church and we didn’t say the Apostles Creed I would have lost the opportunity to reaffirm what I believe. Same for the National Anthem, I want to hear it again over and over. I harbor no animosity toward those who take a knee or whatever, at least they show some sort of conviction. To those who leave their hats on and horse around or retreat to the locker room I’m repulsed by their cowardice. I freely admit that our country has plenty of flaws but even those that kneel are still in the game to help make us better. As for me and mine, we will stand and we will pledge and we honor those who have gone before us. If someone hides or avoids the simple courtesy of honoring them then they should have the courage to admit it and seek somewhere else to live.

Just saw your post Larry, and from everything I’ve heard Rob is a stand up guy but in the future he’d be better served to request anybody to come up and sing it even if no music is available. Rosanne Barr is the only person I’ve ever heard butcher it and there are plenty of seven year kids that can stand up there and do it justice.

[novassdude]

Originally Posted by Lenny5160

I took this from a post that Bob Unkefer has going on Facebook. He made this post personally:

"Short version, technical difficulties in the tower (my bad) and drivers already strapped into Alky dragsters on a 100 degree day. The pledge has been said before to Honor our Country and reciting the Pledge TOGETHER pays the honor to our country that it is due. Like I said, not a HMP or NHRA decision, trying to pay Honor and keep the race moving along."

So is that the real story or is the quote from Mr Evens on this site correct? Acording to him it was ready to go no mention of technical difficulties.

"First, let me say it is great to see the passion coming through in this debate and peoples feelings on something that has become so routine in public sporting events.
The decision over the pledge and/or anthem was among people in the tower. I was prepared either way to play or not play the anthem. The cue for saying the pledge comes from the example set at the Chili Bowl which also says the pledge in lieu of playing of the anthem. To hear thousands of people engaged and actively participating in the opening act of the event can be very powerful - especially if they believe in the words they are reciting.
Not playing the anthem was not in any way intended to be disrespectful to anyone in attendance or watching on the feed, and not an effort to be "politically correct". It was also not a directive from Glendora. It was simply to get people to engage and participate.
In person, the majority of people that expressed an opinion to the staff in the tower were good with it, although some wanted to understand the logic behind it.
I am sure this will be discussed moving forward and may or may not happen again. But again, there was no disrespect intended at all by anyone involved."

[david cron]

[Warren Evans]

Originally Posted by novassdude

So is that the real story or is the quote from Mr Evens on this site correct? Acording to him it was ready to go no mention of technical difficulties.

"First, let me say it is great to see the passion coming through in this debate and peoples feelings on something that has become so routine in public sporting events.
The decision over the pledge and/or anthem was among people in the tower. I was prepared either way to play or not play the anthem. The cue for saying the pledge comes from the example set at the Chili Bowl which also says the pledge in lieu of playing of the anthem. To hear thousands of people engaged and actively participating in the opening act of the event can be very powerful - especially if they believe in the words they are reciting.
Not playing the anthem was not in any way intended to be disrespectful to anyone in attendance or watching on the feed, and not an effort to be "politically correct". It was also not a directive from Glendora. It was simply to get people to engage and participate.
In person, the majority of people that expressed an opinion to the staff in the tower were good with it, although some wanted to understand the logic behind it.
I am sure this will be discussed moving forward and may or may not happen again. But again, there was no disrespect intended at all by anyone involved."

From each of our perspectives, we are both correct. My copy of the anthem was on my iPad that I did not realize the battery was dead on. I got it plugged in shortly before the opening ceremonies and it came to life as we were doing the invocation. Bob made a decision on the fly and did what he felt was the right step to open the show. I was confident we could play the song, but he probably wasn't. And as master of ceremonies, you have to make decisions to move the show along. We could have done it (my opinion) but we could have messed it up just as easily (his opinion).
Now, he and I and others have discussed the pledge as part of opening ceremonies on more than one occasion. Doing it was not a surprise to me. I don't have any issue with what he did and take responsibility for the technical problem which caused the scramble.

[jmcarter]

Originally Posted by david cron

Awesome!

I would just add that obviously we are all hyper-sensitive to this issue. Our country is more divided today than during the Vietnam war and I look for anything that would serve to unite us. I would never fault Warren or Unk for a decision made on the fly. The efforts of Warren and his entire staff and sponsors are appreciated more than I can even express. I only vaguely know what the ‘chili bowl’ even is but assuming it’s a like minded bunch of racing enthusiasts I’d suspect that the first time the Pledge of Allegiance was played in lieu of the National Anthem there was some “splaining” that took place afterwards. Thanks to Warren and others for the explanation of what transpired. I’m sticking a fork in it.