By John Matonich
I heard on a local sports broadcast that over 110 million folks watched the Super Bowl this year. I am not a fan of either Atlanta or New England, but I am a fan of the event, and this year was really cool in my book. What I really appreciated was how much the event seemed to be built around America and the people that make and made this country as great as it is. I didn’t see much in the way of the political garbage that seems to be everywhere else, and I was glad for the reprieve.
I am not much of an emotional guy, but I still tear up whenever I hear Lee Greenwood’s “I’m Proud to be an American” and I felt the tears again when I tuned in to listen to the segment about Johnny Cash singing the “Ragged Old Flag.” I don’t know that I had ever heard it before, but the story it told to me was second to none. I believe too many times in our busy lives we forget how we got here and those that lost their lives to allow us to live ours.
I truly enjoyed the camera shots of those serving our country overseas, and let’s not forget the first responders and police officers who serve here every day. People in attendance were able to enjoy this event because of their work and their efforts and it sure looked like folks were having a great time.
I didn’t watch the half time show, as I promised my bride she could watch Flea Market Flip during that time. That’s one of her favorite shows and since she was good enough to make some great snacks for the game, I couldn’t argue about it. From all the reports, we missed a great performance. Again, I am told it wasn’t political, but it was about great music and a great time. Sorry I missed it.
What this tells me is that we can come together as a country and put our differences aside for a bit to help celebrate this country and an event that has been around a long time: the best of the best in one of our favorite sports coming together to earn the title of world champs. I don’t believe it was that difficult for us to do that.
Obviously, it is possible for us to be a country united even for a short time in the celebration of who we are and where we came from.
It made me proud to watch, and my hat’s off to all involved in putting this theme together and carrying it out wonderfully.
It was certainly a great game to watch, but the theme of the event carried a larger lesson we could all benefit from.
And that’s the situation as I survey it …
After a 35-year career downstate amongst da trolls, during which he built a successful engineering and surveying business, John Matonich is back home in da U.P. His column will appear here occasionally, don’tcha know. His book “Surveyin’ Da Situation” is available on Amazon.com.
Tom says
February 11, 2017 at 12:35 pmJohn, I like you and I enjoyed reading this piece. And, I am a patriotic American. However, much of that Super Bowl patriotic stuff was flag-waving cliche. For example, Johnny Cash is great. That “Ragged Old Flag” poem, though, referred to some “glorious” American wars, but did not talk about when the US Army tried to wipe out all the Native Americans, nor when W. Bush and Cheney inflicted misery and chaos that continues, on our Americans troops, and on the entire Middle East, for no good reason.
Some of the patriotic American stuff on the Super Bowl broadcast was proper ceremony, but the rest was political propaganda, in support of simple-minded illusions about the USA versus the rest of the world.
Fred says
February 11, 2017 at 12:56 pmThat sure sounds nice. Which Super Bowl did you watch? The one I saw had a pregame interview with Bill O’Reilly and donald trump, several shots showing a celebrating mike pence and multiple commercials that were clearly highlighting some specific controversial political policies.
Tina says
February 11, 2017 at 1:53 pmThe halftime show was great! I’m not a big fan of Lady Gaga but she did an excellent job! If you want to see the halftime show, you still can. It’s on YouTube.
I always get choked up everytime I hear The Star Spangled Banner!
God Bless America!
Linda Ann says
February 11, 2017 at 3:45 pmJohn Matonich said, “What I really appreciated was how much the event seemed to be built around America and the people that make and made this country as great as it is.”
Perfect! Thank you John. You speak from the hearts and minds of millions of Americans—grateful, proud and free!
God Bless America!
Catherine says
February 13, 2017 at 3:21 pmPeople must not know their history – musical or otherwise. I enjoyed Gaga’s brief inclusion of “This Land Is Your Land”, an anti-establishment anthem.