Here's the thing. As a general rule I don't really have reactions to videos online, or well, at least I don't try to. But this one caught me off guard. Unfortunately, it's sourced on a Christian website, which by all means I don't support. This has nothing to do with Christianity, but thank you guys for being such a great business.
My thing is, I want people to watch it and react to it, but I want to hear their opinions. Most TL blogs that are useless have people posting "Thoughts?" "Opinions?" at the end just to have a response. Albeit, my motive here is actually to hear opinions. The reason being is that I showed it to a few people on Skype 15 minutes ago or so, and I didn't have one single common reaction. The most interesting was "what a dick move" with inference to the crowd interrupting him rather than supporting him, and that he definitely wanted to finish. At first I was dismissive, but then I watched the video again and realized that he may have not been encouraged or had a new inspiration for finishing the song, but that he might've been yelling into the microphone at the end due to being drowned out. Needless to say, all of the people who responded (3/5 so far) had an array of views of what was occurring. I simply felt it was by way of good nature and the video itself to be feel-good and with slight moral inspiration.
I think that it wasn't intended to be a dick move definitely; the point of it was to raise awareness for disabilities, and they gave the privilege of singing the national anthem to the man. When he had trouble, they simply helped him finish. I ended the video with a generally positive feeling.
In my opinion, I felt the crowd was supportive. The instance where the crowd sings along when the singer forgets his/her lyrics.
However, although I do not fully understand autism, I felt it was disrespectful to laugh during the anthem. Even if it was not intentional, the singer of the anthem should sing it as respect and pride for the country, and should be held responsible for messing up.
I don't really understand the point of inviting him to sing the national anthem. If you wanted to raise support for people who lost their limbs in a war, then perhaps you would invite one to come sing if (s)he was good at singing. If you wanted to raise support for some children's disease, then maybe you'd invite a kid with the disease to come sing, provided they could sing decently.
The gentleman singing in the video wasn't decent at singing, so it wasn't the right way to honor him and his problems imo. This is of course a very politically charged issue.
On September 22 2011 10:45 Ryshi wrote: In my opinion, I felt the crowd was supportive. The instance where the crowd sings along when the singer forgets his/her lyrics.
However, although I do not fully understand autism, I felt it was disrespectful to laugh during the anthem. Even if it was not intentional, the singer of the anthem should sing it as respect and pride for the country, and should be held responsible for messing up.
Autism is generally characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication - I doubt this man understands concepts like respect, pride, and responsibility because of his disorder.
I thought it was a great video, the audience had a good time, the singer seemed to have a good time, and they all got to watch a ball game afterwards. What's not to like?
On September 22 2011 11:07 Barrin wrote: The cheering was rather disruptive and a little rude (but generally an autistic person isn't too conscientious about rudeness so it might not matter), but I understand why someone could think he needed or deserved encouragement, even though I would not have joined in much at all.
I don't see this really as having anything to do with him having an impairment though. If you or I were up there singing and were having trouble getting through the song, people would probably laugh (since it's so abnormal for a poor singer to perform at Fenway park) and then help us along like happened in the video.
Maybe I don't know enough about what happened in the moment, but from what I saw it looked like he started messing up because he was laughing, i.e., something funny was happening in front of him we couldn't see. It was his own laughing that made it tough for him to finish. Acknowledging that something funny happened and that it was tough for him the go on, the crowd helped him finish. He didn't seem upset of even very nervous as the crowd sang with him. It was more like he was having a good time with everyone in the moment.
That could be way off, but that's what it looked like to me.
On September 22 2011 11:07 Barrin wrote: First, why would they ask an autistic person to sing it?
On September 22 2011 11:07 micronesia wrote: I don't really understand the point of inviting him to sing the national anthem. If you wanted to raise support for people who lost their limbs in a war, then perhaps you would invite one to come sing if (s)he was good at singing. If you wanted to raise support for some children's disease, then maybe you'd invite a kid with the disease to come sing, provided they could sing decently.
The gentleman singing in the video wasn't decent at singing, so it wasn't the right way to honor him and his problems imo. This is of course a very politically charged issue.
I took it politically as it being a support of the awareness of autism, or even that the Red Sox were promoting their own charities to an autistic organization, or one in general. My implications of a charity or awareness are simply from the vast number of autistic men and women that you can see on the field during the video. However, I've seen much worse candidates sing the national anthem. There are 162 baseball games per season divided between 30 teams. That's 2430 National Anthem's to be sung. I can certainly understand why they chose him to sing, and that's also where one of the responses I got on Skype confused me. The second person to reply asked "Why the fuck would you have an autistic person sing that?" The first perceived thought I could conjure up was that it would be perfect indeed to have an autistic person sing the National Anthem, in expression of the freedoms we enjoy - one being to celebrate and promote deficiencies and or problems, whether from birth or maintained in life.
On September 22 2011 11:07 Barrin wrote: They could have just been extra patriotic at that moment because our country is so awesome that an autistic person would be given the chance to sing at such a fairly big event.
My thoughts precisely.
On September 22 2011 11:23 MetalFace wrote: Maybe I don't know enough about what happened in the moment, but from what I saw it looked like he started messing up because he was laughing, i.e., something funny was happening in front of him we couldn't see. It was his own laughing that made it tough for him to finish. Acknowledging that something funny happened and that it was tough for him the go on, the crowd helped him finish. He didn't seem upset of even very nervous as the crowd sang with him. It was more like he was having a good time with everyone in the moment.
That could be way off, but that's what it looked like to me.
What you're proposing occurred to me as well, so I checked twice. From what anyone can see from the video, there is nothing there to laugh at. Given that he was staring at an open area that you could see most of, I think I'm safe in saying that he started laughing because of his nerves, or confusion, or whatever it might be. That point is exactly what brings the video together for me, and why I think the crowd laughed and sang with him with good intent. Play by play: He laughed, most likely from the condition he lives in, and whatever occurred in his head. The crowd laughed with him in support (most of them anyway), physically cheered him on, and then he tried to sing whilst struggling not to laugh again, but failing. As a reaction, the crowd started singing to support and encourage him. Maybe I'm naive.
The problem with all of this though, that lays misinterpreted, or properly, who knows, in my head is the three seconds (I'll edit once I post to find the exact time) where it really shows him singing into the mic at a much higher decimal, and a much more serious face, as if he became flustered, offended, or annoyed.
Don't see how anyone can interpret what the crowd did as a dick move. They laughed when he laughed, cheered him on, and helped him sing. The crowd was doing its best to be politically correct but I guess that's still not good enough for some people.
On September 22 2011 11:07 micronesia wrote: I don't really understand the point of inviting him to sing the national anthem. If you wanted to raise support for people who lost their limbs in a war, then perhaps you would invite one to come sing if (s)he was good at singing. If you wanted to raise support for some children's disease, then maybe you'd invite a kid with the disease to come sing, provided they could sing decently.
The gentleman singing in the video wasn't decent at singing, so it wasn't the right way to honor him and his problems imo. This is of course a very politically charged issue.
The national anthem is for all Americans. Not just talented ones.
On September 22 2011 11:07 micronesia wrote: I don't really understand the point of inviting him to sing the national anthem. If you wanted to raise support for people who lost their limbs in a war, then perhaps you would invite one to come sing if (s)he was good at singing. If you wanted to raise support for some children's disease, then maybe you'd invite a kid with the disease to come sing, provided they could sing decently.
The gentleman singing in the video wasn't decent at singing, so it wasn't the right way to honor him and his problems imo. This is of course a very politically charged issue.
The national anthem is for all Americans. Not just talented ones.
Not inviting someone to sing the national anthem in front of thousands of people isn't taking it away from them.
This video is so old, but nonetheless I guess it can be discussed. I think it was pretty cool, even though I don't believe what in what the song represents (in fact the song misrepresents the current country imho)
My first impression was, the crowd did everything best that could be done in given situation. They tried to support really hard. But second impression was that why would you have autistic person singing it? Does he even understands the deeper, patriotic meaning of it? Would it make a difference for autistic person to sing national anthem than some pop song?
EPT
