Keep Swanee River

1:49 pm PDT, Jun 20, Jeanie Buerger, Massachusetts

5:44 pm PDT, Apr 27, SUSAN BIRD, Florida
KEEP SWANEE RIVER. PLEASE LET US KEEP OUR HISTORY. I DON'T MIND IF THEY SOFTEN THE WORDS OUT OF RESPECT, BUT THE OLD WORDS TELL OUR HISTORY. THEY ALOW US TO SEE HOW WE HAVE CHANGED, HOW WE HAVE GROWN. WE CANNOT REWRITE HISTORY TO OUR LIKEING, WE CAN MAKE THE FUTURE BETTER, BUT WE CANNOT CHANGE THE PAST. LET US KEEP SWANEE RIVER.

4:20 pm PDT, Apr 22, Name not displayed, Florida
Leave the state song alone.

4:20 pm PDT, Apr 3, Kevin Martin, Florida
PLEASE do not change OUR STATE SONG

1:24 pm PDT, Apr 3, Wesley Falls, Florida
There are more important things to be working on, the environment for one. This is not a problem. Keep the song and work on cleaning all are rivers and are clostal waters! Or all the world will be sad and dreary!

9:38 am PDT, Apr 2, Name not displayed, Florida
Please keep our state song "Old Folks At Home" and simply update the version. The song is our history and our future and Florida is always our home no matter how far away we might roam.

8:14 am PDT, Mar 26, S. M. Basford, Florida

5:13 am PDT, Mar 26, Philip May, Texas
Stephen Foster was America's first great composer. "Old Folks at Home" is a heartfelt song from the perspective of a black man - revolutionary in 1851! It stands against racism just as Huck Finn did - another great work attacked by idiots. Removing it as Florida's state song diminishes Florida far more than Foster. I also believe it should be performed with the original lyrics - "political correctness" be hanged! I never paid much attention to this song until I saw a beautiful rendition on Youtube by Deanna Durbin. Then I read up on it and found out about this stupid controversy. Silly!

5:21 pm PDT, Mar 25, Thomas Kolan, Florida

10:31 pm PDT, Mar 24, Ed Keenan, Florida
This political correctness is going to be the death of us if we don't control it...Let's stop it here!

7:07 pm PDT, Mar 24, David McCallister, Florida
Unless we have a well known song, or at least a popular tune, the state song will be forgotten, ignored, and useless. Keep something we know. Change or update the wording, if need be; and this has already been done. BTW, ancestors in my family came to this state in 1822.

4:20 pm PDT, Mar 24, Burt Reynolds, Florida

3:16 pm PDT, Mar 24, Benny Haimovitz, Florida
My family came to Florida in 1867. We need to save the history of Florida while we still have some left. I have been a lifelong voter in this great state and will make sure that I vote AGAINST any politician who continues to give the history of MY state away.

1:39 pm PDT, Mar 24, Jeff Gibson, Florida
My family has been in this state since 1883. My ancestors are turning cartwheels in their graves with what has happened to this great state. This is just another step toward Florida losing her originality. We will soon look no different than any other overpopulated, politically correct state.

1:30 pm PDT, Mar 24, William Hemingway, Florida

11:47 am PDT, Mar 24, Ellis Oglesby, Florida
The new song sounds terrible compared to the traditional. Why change a good well known song for a one thats bad and unknown?

9:51 am PDT, Mar 24, Dean H. Leferink, Florida
Swanee River has been tied to Florida for over 100 years. It's part of our persona and recognized around the world for being so. I see no reason to change it. Thank you, Dean H. Leferink

8:11 am PDT, Mar 24, Lunelle Siegel, Florida
I've been a 'super voter' since 1980. You're insulting more people than you are placating by contemplating this change.

9:08 pm PDT, Mar 23, Grady Peeler, Florida
Let's stick with the Swanee River song as our State Song. Who else has a State Song that nearly everyone in the US knows and has sung at one time or another?

3:32 am PDT, Mar 23, Owen Crosby, Florida
I am a life long resident of Florida, my Father and Grandfather were also born here. My children also plan to live here. So it is nothing but a demeaning move on the part of the proponents of changing the song to myself and family, towards those of us who helped build this wonderful state...to say our song is 'racist'. I am ashamed of the lawmakers who don't take the time to understand in context the song and it's origins. It's like taking a heart of pine floor and covering it with Pergo, because it's easier to take care of. I have seen 50 years of 'changes' in the systematic 'raping' of the true beauty of Florida, and if you travel to New Hampshire or New England, you won't catch them destroying the realm's natural historical beauty, and a REAL politician would be doing his (or her, like Marty Bowen) best to preserve Florida, not try to make it into something it's not. Take a trip down to downtown Lake Placid, or into to old residential section of High Springs..LEAVE FLORIDA ALONE !! WE don't need more styrofoam buildings..we don't need more 'theme' parks..We need to preserve our dwindling natural resources, and preserve our culture and history. It makes me sick to have to try to explain to my children 'why' Charlie Crist wants to abandon a song that was here LOOOOOOOOONG before he was even born.

12:33 pm PDT, Mar 22, JOSEPH SARDENA, United Kingdom
NEVER EVER BE ASHAMED OF HISTORY, TRUE FACTS MUST ALWAYS PREVAILE. ALWAYS REMEMBER THE LIES STARTED WITH THE YANKEES AND CONTINUE TO SUPPRESS THE SOUTH!

4:30 am PDT, Mar 21, Christopher Wilson, Florida

6:11 pm PDT, Mar 20, Susan Chandler, Florida
In Florida, issues involving voters' rights and compensation for exonerated felons get blown off, session after session, while matters like the state song takes precedence. Our House and Senate brought us the folly of the presidential primary date change, which Gov. Crist should have prevented with a veto, knowing that both major parties opposed the change. Stop debating the song, stop debating gender specific public schools, too -- there's a budget shortfall that would make it impossible to implement. Florida is one of three remaining states that doesn't automatically restore felons' rights after they're paroled, embarrassingly Jim Crowish of us. I e-mailed Sen. Haridopolos and Rep. Mayfield requesting that they draft a bill that would require a special investigation of any one county that had two felon exonerations that exposed the same abuse of prosecutorial powers, like that of Wilton Dedge and Juan Ramos in Brevard County, which clouded the convictions of Gerald Stano and William Dillon. Their response is silence. Innocence matters; voting rights matter; compensation for wrongful incarcerations matter. Leave Swanee River alone and get down to serious business. And Sen. Haridopolos, please accept wages in keeping with your credentials from FSU, you know they can't afford to overpay you given their current financial woes.

6:26 pm PDT, Mar 18, Jeanie Woods, Pennsylvania

10:53 am PDT, Mar 18, Kathryn Miller Haines, Pennsylvania

9:53 am PDT, Mar 18, Arthur Humphrey, Florida
I am a descendant of the same Barclay family as Stephen Foster, and was born, like him, in Pittsburgh. I have been a resident of Florida for 17 years and would be deeply saddened to see us lose such an important part of our heritage. Certainly the lyrics can be updated as Kentucky did, rather than throwing out the entire song because of them.

9:52 am PDT, Mar 18, John Humphrey, Massachusetts
Please, please keep this beautiful song as the Florida State song.

9:28 pm PDT, Mar 16, SCOTT REXROAT, Florida
the new song is ludicrous and the song should stay the same. dont strip us of our history and further destroy our national heritage.

7:52 pm PDT, Mar 15, Sandra JACONETTA, Florida
Keep our state song---change only the few politically correct words! I am proud of Southern Heritage and do not want to see it disappear.

11:27 am PDT, Mar 14, Judith Hayes, Florida
It's our state's history. We don't need a new, unfamiliar, song. Let's keep the historical and Florida-like song that we have and know.

7:21 am PDT, Mar 14, Barbara Harris, Florida

4:01 am PDT, Mar 14, David Wolfe, Florida

9:58 am PDT, Mar 13, George Law, Florida

9:57 am PDT, Mar 13, Kim Law, Florida

4:36 pm PDT, Mar 12, Arthur Bellot, Florida
Why change the song that so many identify with. I am a 6th generation Floridian. WHY do we always have to bow to the new agendas????

5:04 pm PDT, Mar 11, TC Sparfeld, Florida
I understand the chorus uses unacceptable language, but can't we just change it instead of accepting the lame-o song we just picked?

4:54 pm PDT, Mar 11, Arthur Higginbotham, Florida
Keep our state song the same

6:09 am PDT, Mar 10, Sam Hankin, Florida

9:01 pm PDT, Mar 9, Ervin Thomas, Alabama

9:57 am PDT, Mar 9, Sam McCain, Mississippi
Why would anyone want to change such a standard for so many years?

12:00 am PST, Mar 9, DAVID DYKY, Pennsylvania
PROUD TO SIGN THIS PETITION !

2:06 pm PST, Mar 8, Peter Roberts, United Kingdom
its your history and culture dont let it be taken away like ours

1:25 pm PST, Mar 6, Jay Hankin, Florida
For more impact, add a personal comment here

1:04 pm PST, Mar 6, Name not displayed, Florida

8:38 am PST, Mar 6, Lisa Doxsee, Florida

5:59 am PST, Mar 6, Iris Hardin, Florida
This song is part of our history. Don't do away with it!!!!

3:25 am PST, Mar 6, Bill Armstrong, Florida
It's a national classic and it's Florida's song. If we can't keep it at least we should adobt Grant Peeples' song.