​Robert
      Letters

Many years ago, after a drunken and raucous rendition of Yankee Doodle by family members gathered around the kitchen table, one cousin offered an apology that my father quickly retracted: 

 

“Our most humble apologies to the composer of that song.”

 

“We have no apologies to offer to the composer, and I’ll tell you why – the composer of that song meant it to be a song that people could lift up their voices and sing, and he didn’t care how it sounded.”