>>I agree with you that other issues are far more important, but I've also been the little kid in school feeling even more like an outsider than usual as everyone around me sang "God Bless America," which I'd never before that day.
>
>Yes, I agree that introducing a song like "God Bless America" into a schoolroom is problematic. Probably a plot by the religious right.

I didn't say it was a plot. I said it excluded kids. (It's also a terrible piece of music, but that's a whole 'nother story. <g>)

>In fact, the composer also wrote "White Christmas" - Do we see a pattern here?

Another terrible piece of music. <s>

>
>Had he used his birth-name of Israel Isidore Baline little Waspy kids like me may have felt excluded - so he kindly copyrighted "God Bless America" as Irving Berlin < bg >

Yes, I know it was Irving Berlin and I know he was born Jewish. What's your point?

Tamar