SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 2010
KLMNO
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C3 From stock clerk to presidential example JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON
Dreaming of taking the District by song
Jr. Memorial Library is the music to “The Hymn of Washington,” written in 1927 by Agnes M. Newman and set to a melody by Haydn. It starts with the line “City famed in song and story, shrined within the hearts of men/ Objects of a people’s glory, thou, the Nation’s diadem.” This got Answer Man thinking: Washington is certainly famed in story. But song? Well, yes and no. As we have seen over the last two weeks, many artists have tried to write a Washington song that sticks. Songs by William Pierson and Edwin N.C. Barnes were popular in the 1920s and 1930s. Songs by Jimmie Dodd and James Dixon were popular in the 1950s. Dodd’s song “Washington” remains the city’s official anthem. But nothing has persisted. It isn’t for lack of trying. All manner of people have been inspired to celebrate Washington. In 1959, Anthony Mitchell, then assistant conductor of the U.S. Navy Band, wrote a march called “Our Nation’s Capital.” Two years later, District Commissioner Robert E. McLaughlin made it the city’s official march, telling The Post: “I found it so stirring that for the first time since I left the Naval Academy, I felt like marching.” Words were added by Navy Band clarinetist Dixon Redditt. They start: “Oh, welcome to our city, the capital of our nation, the fairest of them all/ The tree-shaded city beside the blue Potomac is sounding a welcome call.”
N Other songs have flirted with
officialness. In 1984, then-D.C. Council member Charlene Drew Jarvis presented a bill to make songwriter Mark Williams’s “This Is My Town” the official song. Its lyrics include the lines “Sometimes we’re overshadowed by the monumental grounds/ and people who come to visit forget that we’re around/ But from now on we’re going to raise our voices in harmony/ and sing ‘We’re proud to live in D.C.’ ” A fine sentiment, but some felt the song was a little too anti-tourist. The bill went nowhere. Sam Smith is a native
Washingtonian who last year relocated to Maine. In 1977, he penned a jaunty musical stroll through various District attractions titled “Washington,
estled in a folder in the Washingtoniana Division of the Martin Luther King
My Hometown.” He also tried to get official status for it, and though he managed to rhyme “Redskins in the fall” with “Folk Life on the Mall,” success eluded him. Local musician Lincoln Ross
saw his song “Come to Washington” used on the premier broadcast of the 2005 ABC 7 news magazine show “Metropolitan Edition” with Gordon Peterson. “After that, we got as far as having it aired on WPFW a few times and even performing the tune live at Mayor Fenty’s inaugural ball,” Lincoln wrote Answer Man. Songwriter Carol Boyd Leon, composer of George Mason University’s school song, took her own stab at a D.C. song in 2005 with a march called “By George, It’s Washington!” People are still trying to snag the musical brass ring. Artist Andrei Kushnir, owner of the American Painting Fine Art gallery on MacArthur Boulevard, recently commissioned local singer/songwriter Zac Quintana to write a D.C. song. Zac performed “In Washington” on Saturday at the opening of a local landscapes show. Big names who have
celebrated the city in song range from Parliament’s “Chocolate City,” title track from the funk group’s 1975 album, to “Washington, D.C.” by indie darlings the Magnetic Fields. Answer Man has always been partial to “Washingtron” by Tru Fax & the Insaniacs. Laurel’s John McLaughlin remembers the glory days of WMAL in the 1960s, when they played “a wonderful song about D.C. when they did their station identification . . . I wish you could find all the words to this song because it really reflected the beauty of Washington.” Answer Man found the really quite moving song, known as the “WMAL Anthem,” on YouTube. Finally, Eleanor Lawson
expressed the sentiments of many when she wrote: “Washington, D.C., does have a song. It’s sung every week during the fall and winter seasons; sometimes it’s sung with great happiness and other times it’s sung like a funeral dirge. It’s a spritely little ditty, and the first line is ‘Hail to the Redskins. . . .’”
For links to some of the music mentioned here, visit today’s column at
www.washingtonpost.com/ johnkelly and click on the song titles. Send questions to answerman@
washpost.com.
Md. businessman who employs many praised by Obama and Biden
by Hamil R. Harris
When Stephen W. Neal was stocking shelves and cleaning up spills for Giant supermarkets more than 30 years ago, he never could have imagined what hap- pened to him this week: Presi- dent Obama and Vice President Biden dropped by to give him a pat on the back. Neal, 55, now owns K. Neal
International, which has a rev- enue of more than $65 million and 105 people on its payroll in Northern Virginia and Maryland. It is one of the region’s largest outlets for selling and fixing trucks and buses. “This company employs work- ers from all over the greater Washington area,” Obama said Friday, after he and Biden toured Neal’s firm in the 5000 block of Tuxedo Road in Hyattsville. “After two years of recession that caused so much pain in so many commu- nities, this is also an example of a company that is starting to see business pick up again.” Overall nationwide, employers added about 431,000 jobs in May, more than any month in the past decade. But the growth was driv- en by temporary hiring in the fed- eral government for the Census. Employers in the private sector, such as Neal, added only 41,000 jobs last month. For the president, visiting
Neal’s company was an opportu- nity to talk about the economy’s fifth consecutive monthly job gain. For Neal, the visit was affir- mation of his hard work. As Obama spoke, Neal stood nearby with his two children, Ko- rey, a 19-year-old college football player, and Kandace, a 24-year- old special-education teacher.
HARAZ N. GHANBARI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Obama and Vice President Biden pay a visit to K. Neal International in Hyattsville, which to owner Stephen W. Neal was an affirmation of his hard work.
(The “K” in his firm’s name stands for his children’s first initials.) “All that I could think was, thank you God. The president is a busy man, but he took the time to visit my business.” Maryland Gov. Martin O’Mal-
ley had submitted Neal’s name to the White House. The company, which Neal started six years ago, has garnered several awards and is listed as one of Black En- terprise magazine’s top 100 firms. In 2009, Neal was named Mary- land’s small business owner of the year, and this year he received a minority business leaders award from Washington Business Journal.
Despite his accomplishments,
Neal doubted that Obama would show until a helicopter hovered overhead and he heard the roar of police escort motorcycles. The president’s black limousine came rolling onto Tuxedo Road, past a
liquor store, a car detailing shop and into a parking lot cluttered with yellow school buses and trucks. “You are a big guy,” Obama told Neal. Neal graduated from George
Mason University and entered Gi- ant’s retail training program, where his first job was as a stock clerk at the Giant on Monroe Av- enue in Alexandria. He spent nearly three decades with the company, rising to executive vice president of store operations and sales, responsible for more than 26,000 employees. Even as he climbed up the cor-
porate ladder, Neal continued on occasion to straighten shelves, clean spills and help cashiers at check-out counters. “All of these years, my motto has remained the same: Take care of your customers, they will take care of you, and along the way, we will make a little money,” Neal
ROBERT McCARTNEY Jobs center won’t fix everything, but it’ll provide some controls mccartney from C1 COURTESY OF THE U.S. NAVY BAND
In 1968, Lt. Cmdr. Anthony A. Mitchell conducts the U.S. Navy Band for the last time upon his retirement from active duty.
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country,” Vorce said. “They should have to apply for citizenship just like my great-great-great-grandparents did.” The recent eruption of controversy over illegal immigration in Centreville in western Fairfax County highlights why the debate is so frustrating. Both sides have good arguments, which aren’t easily reconciled. It doesn’t help that each faction is quick to self-righteously dismiss the other’s valid points. The liberal activists who want to establish the day labor site hint broadly that their opponents are intolerant bigots. But they have little to say when asked how they justify a measure that would effectively legitimize the presence of undocumented foreigners — and could attract more to the community. “I didn’t invite them. I didn’t bring them. They’re here,” said Jerry Foltz, a member of the Centreville Immigration Forum, which would operate the jobs center. Asked about the illegal status of many day laborers, Foltz said only, “it’s up to the individual to pay taxes” and handle residence papers. The center’s conservative opponents drip with outrage over how the presence of illegal immigrants mocks America’s laws, costs citizens jobs and drains tax dollars. But they offer no practical answer. Angry as they are, the ones I interviewed stopped short of supporting the arrest and deportation of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. “I don’t know what the correct solution is,” Vorce conceded. He said it wouldn’t be acceptable to “send out the National Guard
ANIMAL WATCH
At Dulles, snakes (not) on a plane
CHANTILLY, Dulles Interna- tional Airport, May 24. An animal control officer responded to a call to assist police with two snakes found in a passenger’s luggage. The man had attempted to board a flight with the snakes in his car- ry-on baggage. Airline officials told him that was not permitted. The man surrendered the snakes, which were taken to the Loudoun County Animal Shelter and later to an animal rescue organization. Among cases handled by the Loudoun County Department of Animal Care and Control
and round them up, Nazi-style.” Rayman Hamid, 47, a leading opponent of the jobs center, said the solution could be amnesty instead of deportation. “The government needs to
take a stand one way or the other,” said Hamid, a Guyanese immigrant who owns a Baskin-Robbins store near the proposed site. “Illegals aren’t going away, because contractors are going to keep hiring them because they’re cheaper.” The standoff will continue until Congress finds enough political courage to compromise on comprehensive immigration reform. Anybody who follows the subject already knows what the deal will look like. Conservatives have to swallow some kind of amnesty. Liberals have to accept genuinely tough sanctions, especially against employers who hire illegal immigrants. The nation needs a guest-worker program that
expands or restricts temporary immigration according to the economy’s needs. In the meantime, count on regular outbreaks of bitterness and ill will like the one in Centreville. A substantial majority of people attending a public meeting on the subject Tuesday were outspokenly critical of the center. My own sympathies, on balance, are with the immigrants. The vast majority come to America to work long hours at unattractive jobs to earn a better life for themselves and their families. Only a few come to sponge off the welfare state. That said, the immigrants’ presence in Centreville has unquestionably been a nuisance, and their own bad behavior is partly to blame. Numerous people complained that men awaiting jobs regularly intimidated women and girls
with leers, ogling and lecherous comments. The problem has been
particularly bad outside the Centreville Regional Library, near a housing complex where many day laborers live. “It was scary to come to the
library. I’d tell my daughter, who’s 14, ‘Hey, don’t go outside,’ ” said Pamela Jordan, 39. Center supporter Foltz said he
couldn’t defend such conduct. But he said it would be easier to prevent such problems if the day laborers were supervised at an established venue. That’s a good point, which underlines why it’s better overall to have the center than not. Yes, it’s maddening to tolerate lawbreaking. Given that mass arrests are even less desirable, it’s better to put the day laborers in a double-wide than have them hanging out on the street.
mccartneyr@washpost.com said.
Six years ago, Neal said, he hit a brick wall. Giant had been sold to new owners and Neal, who is di- vorced, decided to retire. He was 49. He traveled the world until his children encouraged him to start his own company. Neal took a job as the general
manager of J Price International Trucks before deciding to buy it. Prince George’s County is happy to have him, said Kwasi Holman, president of the county’s Eco- nomic Development Corp. “For the president and vice president to come to a company that we have worked with exten- sively makes us feel very proud that our work is being noticed as a national model,” Holman said. “Without God, friends and mentors, none of this would be possible,” Neal said when the event was over.
harrish@washpost.com
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