We all need to immunize ourselves against despair for this week, and this story ought to do it. Via CBS News:
The United States Marine Band was founded in 1798. Thomas Jefferson gave it its nickname, “The President’s Own.” Today, 135 Marines still perform the score of the White House from parties to inaugurations. So, there was excitement, last year, when the Marines judged a contest for teenage musicians. The winners would perform with the band. Thirty students were chosen. The concert was scheduled. But, last month, it was cancelled. President Trump had issued his executive order against diversity programs, and the young musicians were Black, Hispanic, Indian and Asian. Because they were silenced, many wanted to hear them — including veterans of military bands who gathered in an improvised orchestra of equity that you might call America’s own.
This past Sunday, at the music center at Strathmore, near Washington, 22 students who had lost their chance to play tuned up with the military band veterans for the concert that was not meant to be heard.
This music had been planned for the cancelled concert. “Nobles of the Mystic Shrine” by John Philip Sousa. Sousa directed the Marine Band a century and a half ago and composed “Stars and Stripes Forever,” the great classic in the songbook of patriots.
Take that, fascist assholes! Most people are kind and caring.
