The national anthem is a kind of Balmer thing, hon. It was written a long time ago when a lawyer by the name of Francis Scott Key. He couldn't known it was gonna be played at baseball games cuz I think he mite a been kind-a-too-dead to go to the first one.
He was sure enough pretty dead by 1954 when them O's come to our city. And he was pretty much just as dead when we started to scream "O" in the middle of that song long about 1979 and just as dead when dat dere Supreme Court ruled we could burn the flag ("Kaepernick and the inevitable intersection of sports, politics and the national anthem," Aug. 30).
But him being a Balmer lawyer and Balmer lawyers bein' a bit smarter than the average bear, I think he might a thought it was OK for a man to sit down and do nothin' when it was being played at a sports game. After all, lawyers is spose to take these things called "oats," hon, and when you take the oat u swears it to the constitution the most important principle of which is that there thing called free speech.
So I think Mr. Francis would be proud that his poem got to be our song, hon, and since the last line of that there song speaks of freedom and bravery, I would hopes that me, a fellow Balmer attorney, would think it OK for a man to sit down to make a point, hon.
Denny Olver, Baltimore
Da guy who rode dis is a poroud Balmer attorney since 1993, hon.