Editor, Gazette-Journal:

We went to the Virginia Symphony concert on the green Saturday night. The soprano was really great. But the sing-along with words supplied in the program insert got me thinking. The guy next to us was wiping tears from his eyes. My wife noticed and started to do the same.

All the songs in the medley were melodies with words I’d learned in grammar school or at church as a young boy; except for “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” the George M. Cohan song featured in a Jimmy Cagney movie “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” All the songs but that one referred to God, the Father, the Almighty.

Maybe the guy with tears in his eyes was weeping because he knew that too many in the crowd didn’t know the words anymore, and these days many traditional songs aren’t sung in public schools. As we are regularly reminded by school officials, but in error, “Separation of church and state, ya know.”

One of the orchestra selections was mu...