Land of the Free, Home of the Who?

Imagine fighting overseas for your country, only to come back and hear a group of people change the way they sing the ending of your National Anthem.
 
Most soldiers and veterans would find this very offensive. However, some at the University of Oklahoma feel differently.
 
Bryan Webb is an Iraq war veteran and an OU football fan. Before OU football games, Webb chooses to go along with the OU student body in changing the ending of The Star Spangled Banner.
 
"I don't find it offensive,” he said. “All it is meant to do is get the student section fired up for the game.”
 
Students, faculty and alumni have had heated debates as of late due to the student section singing "home of the sooners," instead of the traditional "home of the brave."
 
It has become a Sooners’ pregame tradition for students that started in a decade which has been marked by events such as 9/11 and the War on Terrorism.
 
"There is nothing Anti-American about it," said Webb, who volunteered overseas in Kirkuk, Iraq for five months in 2006. "[The students] aren't saying anything like home of the Nazis."
 
Others on campus are frustrated and said it's a disrespectful gesture by the students.
 
"The disrespect of the National Anthem shocks me," said OU Army ROTC Capt. Dave Jenson. "I was offended that a student population would disrespect their country that way."
 
Jenson is originally from Washington and has been at OU since July.
 
Hearing a university student body disrespect the National Anthem is a disgrace, Jenson said.
 
University officials are opposed to how the anthem is sung and have encouraged students to sing the proper words.
 
"I strongly believe that the words to the National Anthem should never be changed," OU President David Boren said through an e-mail. "I sincerely hope that our fans will choose to sing the National Anthem with the words as they are written and then shout 'Go Sooners' just after the National Anthem is finished."
 
That approach is more appropriate and honors both the country and university, Boren said.
 
"[Home of the brave] is a reference to those who have fought and given their lives for our country," Boren said.
 
Despite President Boren’s suggestion, there is still the question of coming up with a plan that would actually make the students stop adding their own twist to the anthem’s lyrics.
 
Messages encouraging students to sing the traditional words have been played on the big screen prior to the playing of the national anthem, but students continue with "the Sooners" instead of "the brave," Jenson said.
 
Title 36- United States Code 301 states what is considered proper conduct while observing the national anthem.

“The composition consisting of the words and music known as the Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem. All present except those in uniform should stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart, men not in uniform should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold the headdress at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart, individuals in uniform should give the military salute at the first note of the anthem and maintain that position until the last note and when the flag is not displayed, all present should face toward the music and act in the same manner they would if the flag were displayed,” according to the uscode.house.gov website.
 
However, nowhere in the code does it state anything about singing the original words of the Star Spangled Banner.
 
"Maybe that could be one step in encouraging these students to start singing the anthem the proper way." said OU alumnus Jo Marsh. "It wouldn't be a law, but it could raise a higher awareness to this problem."
 
OU isn't the only place to have hosted a sporting venue where The Star Spangled Banner has been altered. In May of 2009 before a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game, R&B singer Tyrese Gibson created an uproar by choosing words to better fit his rooting interest, according to E! Online.
 
Instead of singing "our flag was still there," Gibson sang "our Lakers were still there." A poll was conducted on the E! Online website asking its viewers whether it was completely disrespectful or fun and harmless.
 
Sixty-nine percent of the people said it was completely disrespectful, which allows us to assume that it is sociably unacceptable to alter the words of The Star Spangled Banner.
 
It has to make many of the traditional Sooner fans that attend the football games quite embarrassed, Marsh said.
 
"If i was a fan of another team visiting Norman, I would think what is wrong with these people," Marsh said. "They don't know the words to the national anthem?"
 
Some suggest the blame doesn’t completely fall on the students or the university, but more on the one's who raised them.
 
"It goes back to those students parents teaching them respect, duty and honor," Jenson said. "It's not the universities fault, they have tried and will probably continue to try to correct this issue. If their family doesn't teach it to them, its not the universities responsibility."
 
Students feel it is their right and choice to say what they want to say before a football game, Webb said.
 
"My parents raised me perfectly fine. I have never been arrested, went straight to college and been a straight-shooter my whole life," Webb said. "My military career can speak to that. Despite saying home of the Sooners, it is my choice to say that."
 
The students are just trying to root their team on, said Jenny Atteberry, an OU student and mother of a son and daughter-in-law who are in the military.
 
"I understand where the students are coming from," Atteberry said. "But I wish they should really say brave in support of our troops."
 
Many students have the god and country attitude like many people do in Oklahoma, Webb said.
 
The state of Oklahoma has had a very patriotic history and the students mean well by what they say, Webb said.
 
But as the debate on campus continues through until next season, opposing sides will always have their stand on the issue.
 
Although some people may believe what Webb sings during the national anthem at OU football games is unpatriotic and disrespectful, he plans to re-enlist in the military after his term is finished this year, Webb said.
 
"As a Sooner, and as someone who says 'home of the Sooners' instead of 'brave', I will always defend this nation until the day I die," Webb said.