That pre-game moment - playing a California National Anthem.

When the California Men’s National Team takes the field for the first time this year in the Summer 2021 at the ‘World Series’ organized by the World Unity Football Alliance and lines up next to their opponent there will hopefully be a moment set aside in the program for the playing of anthems. My personal suggestion will be this song ‘California, California, ’ composed in 2001 by Kristy Bitgood-Kelty. The current official California State Song, ‘I Love you California’ sounds like an early 1900s music hall song, which in actuality, it is. More on Ms. Bitgood-Kelty’s fine national hymn can be found on the website here www.californiaanthem.org . Please give ‘California, California’ a listen. The introduction, approximately, twenty-three seconds maybe should be cut. But it resonates with me as I am a California exile who longs someday to return and ‘and rest in her hills so fine.’