ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 30, 1997 TAG: 9701300019
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
TOO BAD ``Wasted Days and Wasted Nights'' has been taken. It would be an apt title for a song commemorating the General Assembly's three decades of bickering over an official anthem for the state.
As of Wednesday, the Senate had agreed to offer death with dignity to the current song, ``Carry Me Back to Old Virginia,'' by awarding it ``emeritus'' status. Fine.
This doesn't satisfy lawmakers who find some of the song's lyrics too offensive to honor even with this designation. Nor does it satisfy lawmakers who want to keep the song's official status in defiance of politically correct pressure. Nor does it satisfy lawmakers who apparently believe Virginia's honor and integrity will be at risk until the General Assembly finds a replacement song.
The fat lady, excuse the incorrect expression, is yet to sing. But who cares? Lawmakers might win a Tony for the longest-running, off-Broadway comic opera. But who would pay to see, year after year, this tired farce?
``Carry Me Back'' is non grata because its lyrical reference to an ``old darkey'' who ``labored so hard for old massa'' recalls a period of history in the commonwealth and an institution - slavery - that many blacks and others would prefer not to evoke nostalgically. But the song is virtually never sung or played in public - hasn't been for years. And it's probably not in many Virginians' private collections of oldies but goodies, either. The only uttering of the lyrics we've ever heard is by legislators who annually recall them to argue why they should never be recalled.
On top of which, the state doesn't need a state song. Nothing in the Virginia Constitution requires it. The test scores of public-school students will not sink, nor will the crime rate rise, for lack of it. No federal funds will be withheld if Virginia fails to memorialize itself musically. Several states get along nicely without official songs.
So, please, no more attempts to sanitize ``Carry Me Back'' lyrics, which, if politically incorrect, are no more so than the time and energy squandered on efforts to exorcise them from memory. There's no point in messing with the song to preserve an unnecessary and obsolescent official status. Let it be itself: a song, an historical artifact, that you can sing or not sing in the shower as you like. And, please, no more attempts to create an instant ``classic,'' as if a replacement song could change Virginia's history.
This dissonant debate has gotten annoying. Play taps. Get over it.
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997by CNB