The Anthem - November 1, 2017

BLACKBURN: When we talk about teaching our children integrity and honor and talk about American values and Tennessee values, one of the things that we do is we teach them how to say the Pledge of Allegiance and we teach them how to sing the Star-Spangled Banner and we teach them how to conduct themselves during those times. And since we do that, I think it is important that each of us take that three minutes and use that as a time to sing those words of the Star-Spangled Banner and to remember the history of that song, the history of this nation, and why it is important to us as Americans. You have freedom of speech, you have a right of peaceful protest, but during that three minutes, that belongs to people who have fought to defend the freedoms that we have, and in our country we stand when the national anthem is played. We salute. We ought not to find ourselves using that as a form of protest.