Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Welcome Home, Immigrants

I had never heard of Lee Greenwood's song "God Bless the U.S.A." until after September 11, when it was played a lot, and particularly because one of my family members was a big fan. 

On Sunday, John Oliver spent most of his Last Week Tonight show analyzing Trump's mass deportation plans, and ended with a critique of Greenwood's song. Part of that second segment was a clip of a new immigrant naturalization ceremony where the song was played for the captive audience of newly minted citizens. 

As Oliver's show often does, they proposed an alternate song that's more appropriate for our country than Greenwood's simplistic pablum. I can't embed it, but the video of "Welcome Home" can be seen here

It's funny, of course, with amazing production values, and features Will Ferrell... but I did tear up at the end because it's true, too.


No comments: