Denver got drenched today.  Starting in the early evening hours the heavens opened up and the water fell from the sky.  And not just a “Hi and bye” kind of rain.  This was a good soaking that must have felt good to the parched soil.  I know I was just smiling all night as the rain came tumbling down (yes, I’m only happy when it rains) because it felt like it should have back in the months past.  For some reason our spring has been tame and without the usual thunderboomers and pouring rain that makes for fun afternoons on the porch.

It’s a great thing for Denver.  9news reports we may be in for more thunderstorms tomorrow.  I know there was some flash flooding and funnel clouds going on so the usual, “Y’all be safe ya hear?” is best adhered to.

Fellow authors and readers take heed. I’d love to see you getting involved in showing us many of the 5,280 reasons why Denver is flippin’ awesome. Check out the channel and the video below. The fun starts…NOW! :)

Channel is located here.

Space to be filled soon!

UPDATE: Due to my work schedule, it’ll be Tuesday Morning before it hits.  My apologies.  Darn Real Life Jobs!  :)

Denverites: There’s a squirt-gun fight Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Park fountain on Colfax, between Broadway and Bannock. BYOSG

“Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper is changing his tune. Initially, Hickenlooper soft-pedaled the surprise performance of the “Black National Anthem” by a popular jazz singer who had been tapped to sing the Star-Spangled Banner at his annual State of the City address Tuesday. But by Wednesday, the mayor belted out some harsh words for the chanteuse.

“The city asked Rene Marie to sing the national anthem at (Tuesday’s) State of the City event. She agreed to do so. We expected her to sing the national anthem, and she deceived us,” the mayor told reporters at a news conference in front of the City and County Building.

“Her actions show a certain lack of understanding for how strongly our community feels about patriotic symbols and traditions, and certainly overshadowed a day of great importance to our city,” Hickenlooper said.”

And he managed to find his courage…how quaint. Mayor, you have a lotta work to do if you think this is going to change the knee-knockin’ impression you’ve seared on my brain…you are sorely mistaken.

“But in a tradition-laden civic ceremony that included a law enforcement color guard presenting our flags and the Pledge of Allegiance — making a personal substitution for the national anthem was not an option. We asked for the Star-Spangled Banner and that’s what we expected,” he said.

“We will do whatever it takes to ensure that a situation like this never occurs again, even if I have to sing the national anthem myself,” Hickenlooper added.

The mayor said it would be “close to impossible” that Marie would be invited to sing at another city function again.

Even Ritter (who I still am fussed with over the union move) expressed his dismay. When you’ve lost Ritter…you’ve lost your standing. And of course…Tancredo lets loose.

Other elected officials took aim at Marie on Wednesday, too. On talk radio, Gov. Bill Ritter called her actions “disrespectful.” “I think the problem here is that she was invited to do one thing and she chose to do another, and that’s unfortunate for a variety of reasons,” Ritter said on the Mike Rosen Show.

“I think it’s a fair interpretation to say it’s disrespectful,” he said. U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, “condemned” Marie — as well as the mayor — “for the national anthem debacle that took place during the State of the City address,” according to a press release from Tancredo’s office.

And now Obama has brought down the hammah’ on her.

Sen. Barack Obama said today a jazz singer’s decision to sing the ‘Black National Anthem’ at Denver’s State of the City speech this week was wrong.

“Well, ‘Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing’ is a beautiful song that has been sung in African-American churches and other events for a very long time,” Obama told the Rocky in phone interview. “We only have one National Anthem. And so, if she was asked to sing the National Anthem, she should have sung that. ‘Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing’ is a beautiful song, but we only have one National Anthem.”

I don’t think anyone is really about to defend this woman for the lack of logic she exhibited. In fact, with Obama wagging his proverbial finger at her…she’s lost the whatever high ground she thought she had. The Rocky took her to task with a editorial. She’s either going to come clean…or just be all Ward Churchill on us and say, “Nope, I’m right and y’all are wrong…so there…pbbbbbbt!”. I wouldn’t suggest the latter. Tends to put you in a small little corner with a few energetic supporters. But still few.

What do you think? Here’s a handy dandy non-scientific-easy to skew poll to decide.  Because I care.  Or something.  :)

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Ok, we’ve apparently hit a running stride in the race of “let’s put Denver in the news for all the wrong reasons”. First it was Hick being funny and not so funny…and now it’s someone getting all racial up in my city. By golly I do believe I’m offended. Or bothered. Or like Hick, “disappointed.” This is the kind of stuff that boggles my mind.

We as a country strive for racial equality. I personally don’t think of people as “Black” or “African American”. Got citizenship? You are an American. The color of this country runs all along the spectrum…but some people are not all the way on that bandwagon. See the stories below with the links for the fun. Seriously…can we for once move beyond being racial and dividing ourselves according to color?

9News.com says, “stirs controversy”. I say something else.

Instead, she performed the song “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” which is also known as the “black national anthem.” When she finished, the audience responded with mild applause. The national anthem was never performed.

Marie told 9NEWS she kept her plans to switch songs quiet until the very last moment. She says only she, her husband and a friend knew she was going to sing something other than the “Star-Spangled Banner.” She says she wanted to express her love of her country by mixing the lyrics of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” with the melody of the “Star-Spangled Banner.” “When I decided to sing my version, what was going on in my head was: ‘I want to express how I feel about living in the United States, as a black woman, as a black person,’” said Marie.

But was that what you were asked to do? I do not believe so, but then again I’m a white person living in the United States. Does it make it bad that I am criticizing this action? Does it make me racial first? How do we define the pulling of said, “Racial Card”? How does this whole racial conversation of who did what go anyway? Does the Geneva Convention cover this? Seriously. This is what our city gets covered for. Wonderful.

Michelle Malkin covers it while Slapstick Politics brings the latest news to the story.

Here’s my thing. There’s a time and place to make your point, whatever it was originally. This was not that time. Maybe you accomplished getting your name and face on the blogs, news stations and all that…and maybe that was your point. I don’t know. All I know is this kind of thing doesn’t help us move forward on Racial Issues…it just mucks up the thing even more.

You know the drill kids. Let’s talk it out in comments.

7/2/2008 11:22am:  Ed Morrissay over at Hotair.com points out some possible future events coming down the pike and echoes what I was thinking this morning…

In addressing the media, Marie displayed the self-centeredness of people who hijack events for their own aggrandizement.  “When I decided to sing my version, what was going on in my head was: ‘I want to express how I feel about living in the United States, as a black woman, as a black person,” she explained.  However, the event wasn’t staged to give Marie a platform for her political views; it was an official speech by the Mayor to communicate the status of city government to its citizens.

Unfortunately, Denver had better get used to this kind of It’s all about how I feel as a [blank] thought process over the next two months.

As I thought more and more last night and into this morning I realized what she had done hadn’t been for the “Black” community or even for anybody else.  It was just for her in that moment to celebrate herself.  Now was that her conscious intent?  Probably not, but it came across that way to many in the city of Denver.  If she’s smart, she’ll apologize and do that whole, “oops” thing.  If she’s going to fight this, she’s going to lose.  There are still a good group of people in Denver, and the United States who believe that the National Anthem is just that.  THE National Anthem.

There are some things that make us all citizens of these United States.  And no separate anthem does that.

My new job has me working in and around the University of Colorado Hospital over at Colfax and I-225.  I love this new job for many reasons but one of them is that I have found myself drawn to the street that is one of the longest in the country.  For the longest time it was known as a bad place and people would drive miles around it to avoid touching or looking at Colfax.

To those people I say…whatevah!  To me, there are dangerous parts in any city you go.  Slide on over to Detroit and tell me there are places that you’d like to walk down in the dark of night flaunting and taunting.  Here’s the thing.

Denver is beautiful.  And not just because of those Rocky Mountains and the sunshine and the amazing parks and great trails.  No, our city is beautiful because there is still character left within her.  There are still places that exude the culture, the love and the ideas of what has made Denver and the metro area that unique.  Colfax is just a piece of that.  There are so many points in Denver and the metro area that create the character of our city that seem to be moving to lukewarm territory it’s a little saddening.  And maybe even scary.

And so tonight I did the unthinkable.  I drove from Colfax and 225 all the way to Race Street at around 30 miles an hour windows down and playing my music softly from my speakers.

I loved this journey as the neon lights blazed on on the darkness.  The closed storefronts with unique facades.  The streets littered with the random walker and talker.  The old signs  that evoked the neighborhood of old with the stark comparison of newfangled buildings and business.  As I voyaged deeper down Colfax there were parts where my nervous soul skittered a bit but regained composure.  I passed icons (“Pete’s” numerous Restaurants anyone?) and fading memories throughout this drive.  I passed the dying and the thriving as the darkness consumed the path behind me.

There’s a drive underway to bring Colfax out of the red light days and into something bigger and better…and yet somehow manage to retain the identity.  Urban change and renewal is a complicated beast and the longest street in America.  As a new transplant from A-Town (Aurora, woot!) I’m venturing outside my mild comfort zone in an attempt to get to know my city that I love.  There are also others who love Colfax and they’re really into the street.

There’s even business working at it too.  As time goes on and I get used to driving Colfax I’ll try and do some photo reporting and posts about it.  It’s a great part of Denver (and the side street journeys are also fun to do) and you should check it out…although I’d say daytime would be better for first timers.

Denver Mayor says “no” to fried foods?  I mean…seriously?  This is the big issue facing the convention right now…like, we need to do this?  As Ms. Malkin says and I echo…what about the Southern Dems who love their fried food?  Heck, even I love me some of it.  I mean…SERIOUSLY?

See the Malkin Write Up Here. LittleGreenFootballs noticed our mayor too..

Look, I’m all about eating right and being healthy…but mandating and taking away the choice with the catering?  That’s a little…too much.

Aight, let’s talk this out in comments.  :)