America’s Song, Part 2
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 September 2021
⏱️ ? minutes
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Summary
With his performance of “God Bless America” during Game 3 of the 2001 World Series, NYPD officer Daniel Rodriguez comforted a nation still grieving in the wake of 9/11. It felt like a timeless moment. Instead, it proved fleeting. Twenty years later, the reasons for that tell a story of the political divisions and embellished patriotism that now polarize American sports. The weight of it all can be felt through the struggles of Rodriguez, who’s still trying to bless people with his voice as America attempts to rediscover its own.
Join Washington Post sports columnist Jerry Brewer, sports features writer Kent Babb and audio producer Bishop Sand as they explore how a man and a nation have attempted to heal and find meaning after trauma and tragedy.
Read more and see photos of Daniel then and now here.
In Part 2, Jerry, Kent and Bishop visit Daniel in L.A. to see what his life is like now, and look into the origins of the song that made him famous. Then they look at what else happened to him, the song and the country in the years after 9/11, as shifting political winds drove the Americans further apart.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Martine. |
| 0:03.0 | Today we're bringing you part two of the post series, America's Song. |
| 0:07.5 | If you have not yet heard part one, you're going to want to go back and listen to that |
| 0:11.5 | first. |
| 0:12.5 | Okay, here we go. |
| 0:14.6 | Previously on America's Song. |
| 0:16.7 | I was known as the singing policeman, 9-11 singing cop. |
| 0:21.4 | 55,000 people had the same heartbeat and he rose to the occasion. |
| 0:31.3 | This was the dream that I was meant to have. |
| 0:33.3 | God bless America was powerful then, but now we're divided as a country. |
| 0:47.4 | We spent a couple of days with Daniel Rodriguez in New York. |
| 0:50.6 | We opened up about his past and what brought him to St. God bless America at that World |
| 0:54.6 | Series just after September 11th. |
| 0:58.2 | The performance changed his life, but we're starting to learn that it only pushed down |
| 1:03.2 | his own grief. |
| 1:04.9 | We wanted to know more about his life since that day and how he's doing now. |
| 1:09.8 | So a month after that first trip, Jerry produced her bishop Sam and I, flew to California to |
| 1:14.5 | meet him at his home. |
| 1:17.3 | He lives in a little town called Sierra Madre, about 20 miles northeast of downtown LA. |
| 1:23.1 | It ain't Brooklyn. |
| 1:24.1 | It's not Hollywood either. |
| 1:26.2 | Peacocks were on the streets. |
... |
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