Twenty-six kids from Sandy Hook Elementary will sing America the Beautiful at the Superbowl on Sunday. This was announced by the NFL yesterday. The number 26 is the same number of children and adults who were slaughtered at Sandy Hook in December. Apparently an anonymous donor is paying their expenses.
“It’s an honor,” said a local parent who did not wish to be identified.
I imagine this will not go over well with those who support an extreme interpretation of the 2nd amendment, however even people who comment on a popular sports blog, Pro Football Talk, where one can usually find mostly conservative comments whenever politics rears its head there, are generally supportive.
I saw a poll last night on the Rachel Maddow Show that 86% of NRA members support universal background checks, a position Wayne LaPierre yesterday at the Senate Hearing spoke adamantly, if somewhat uncomfortably, against. That’s 86% of NRA members. Support among the general public is even higher – 92%.
Perhaps we are seeing a change in the country’s views on gun control. Four senators have gone public, Republicans Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Mark Kirk of Illinois, and Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia (previously a vocal NRA supporter) and Chuck Schumer of New York, regarding their discussions regarding a bill that would require universal background checks for gun purchases (the same universal background checks the NRA supported in 1999). Last year none of these Senators would have even considered advocating such a bill with the possible exception of Schumer.
In any case, even if you aren’t a football fan, you may want to tune in at six pm on Sunday to catch the kids from Newtown, CT, children who lost their schoolmates, teachers and Principal to a deranged young man with am AR-15 Bushmaster, sing America the Beautiful. I doubt anyone will dare heckle those children.
Here are members of the Sandy Hook Elementary Choir singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with Ingrid Michaelson:
After hearing that, I have no doubt they’ll do a great job on Sunday night with hundreds of millions watching on television.
