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Love, not hate.

33 Comments

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Did you watch the big game last night?

Did you marvel at the Dark Side, the most amazing defense in Super Bowl history? (I enjoyed it, but my husband… a Pats fan… most assuredly did not)

Did you enjoy the commercials? (I thought they were pretty lame overall, but did like the Coca Cola polar bears, the Budweiser Clydesdales, the retiring potato farmer and Let Me Be Your Neighbor. That one choked me up.)

And if you made it to half time… which show did you watch? Because yes, there were two. The official Bad Bunny performance and an alternate version with Kid Rock for reasons I still don’t understand.

If you follow my blog, you know I don’t often post political. But sometimes… things need to be said, and this afternoon I’m going to let Notth Carolina Senator Micheal Garrett say it far better than I can.

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“I watched Bad Bunny deliver the most American halftime show I have ever seen. Then I came home and watched it again. And I am not okay. In the best possible way.

He sang every single word in Spanish. Every. Single. Word. He danced through sugarcane fields built on a football field in California while the President of the United States sat somewhere calling it “disgusting.”

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Lady Gaga came out and did the salsa.

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Ricky Martin lit up the night. A couple got married on the field.

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He handed his Grammy, the one he won eight days ago for Album of the Year, to a little boy who looked up at him the way every child looks up when they dare to believe the world has a place for them.

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And then this man, this son of a truck driver and a schoolteacher from Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, stood on the biggest stage on the planet and said “God bless America.”

And then he started naming them.

Chile. Argentina. Uruguay. Paraguay. Bolivia. Peru. Ecuador. Brazil. Colombia. Venezuela. Panama. Costa Rica. Nicaragua. Honduras. El Salvador. Guatemala. Mexico. Cuba. Dominican Republic. Jamaica. The United States. Canada. And then, his voice breaking with everything he carries, “Mi patria, Puerto Rico. Seguimos aquí.” My homeland, Puerto Rico. We are still here.

The flags came. Every single one of them. Carried across that field by dancers and musicians while the jumbotron lit up with the only words that mattered: “THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE.”

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I teared up. I’m not ashamed to say it. I sat on my couch and I wept because THAT is the America I believe in. That is the American story, not the sanitized, gated, English-only version that small and frightened people try to sell us. The REAL one. The messy, beautiful, multilingual, multicolored, courageous one. The one that has always been built by hands that speak every language and pray in every tongue and come from every corner of this hemisphere.

That is the America I want Jack and Charlotte to know. That when the moment came, when the whole world was watching, a Puerto Rican kid who grew up to become the most-streamed artist on Earth stood in front of 100 million people, sang in his mother’s language, blessed every nation in the Americas, and spiked a football that read “Together, we are America” into the ground. Not with anger. With joy. With love so big it made hate look exactly as small as it is.

And what did the President do? He called it “absolutely terrible.” He said “nobody understands a word this guy is saying.” He called it “a slap in the face to our Country.” The leader of the free world watched a celebration of love, culture, and everything this hemisphere has given to the world, and all he could see was something foreign. Something threatening. Something disgusting.

Let that sink into your bones.

The man who is supposed to represent all of us looked at the flags of our neighbors, heard the language of 500 million Americans across this hemisphere, and felt attacked. That’s not strength. That’s not patriotism. That is poverty of the soul.

And then there was the Turning Point show. Kid Rock in a college arena in North Dakota. Three million viewers watching a man who once wrote a song about liking underage girls perform as the “family-friendly” alternative to a Puerto Rican artist celebrating love. They called it the “All-American Halftime Show”, as if America has a velvet rope. As if this country belongs to some of us and not all of us. As if you need to sing in English to count.

Here’s what I want to say to everyone who posted about that show tonight, who shared it proudly, who turned away from Bad Bunny’s celebration because it was in Spanish and the flags weren’t only red, white, and blue:

Your children will see those posts. Your grandchildren will find them. The internet doesn’t forget. And one day, when the history of this moment is written, when our kids and their kids look back at 2026 the way we look back at the people who stood on the wrong side of every bridge and every march and every moment that mattered, they will know exactly where you stood. They will see who chose Kid Rock over a hemisphere of flags. They will see who called love “disgusting.” And they will carry that knowledge the way all of us carry the knowledge of what our ancestors did when they were tested.

I don’t say that with anger. I say it with sadness. Because hate is an inheritance nobody asks for, and yet it gets passed down just the same.
Bad Bunny didn’t say “ICE out” tonight. He didn’t need to. He just showed the whole world what America looks like when we are not afraid of each other. When culture is shared, not policed. When language is music, not a threat. When a flag from every nation in this hemisphere can walk across a football field together and the only words you need are the ones he gave us:

The only thing more powerful than hate is love.

Over 100 million people saw that tonight.

And no Truth Social post can take it away.”

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I don’t speak Spanish and confess I didn’t understand a word Bad Bunny said. But you know what?

I didn’t have to.

The message was crystal clear.

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33 thoughts on “Love, not hate.”

  1. I haven’t seen it with living in the UK. But no doubt, looking from these photos and photos from another blog, that it looked a fun and an energising night. I don’t know Spanish. But I know I would have enjoyed the performance regardless. Feeling the energy and the love. And knowing me, I probably would have had some tears from watching. Just feeling the emotions of it all.

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    2. Half time shows have featured rock and roll, pop, country, rap, marching bands, soul, Motown and even an Elvis Presley impersonator.
      Roughly 65 million Spanish speaking people live in the U.S.. I’d say Latin music was long overdue.
      😊

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      1. Well, I kind of remember some of my ESOL students never wanted to learn English. A few told me they did not have to. Kind of odd. I am all for speaking other languages. Most of the countries I have lived in spoke English as a foreign language and were happy to use it. Interesting.

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      2. Shakira and Jennifer Lopez both sang in Spanish at the Super Bowl in 2020 and no one needed an alternative show then.
        I just don’t see the problem.

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      3. We are already international in Florida with so many different cultures, languages. Some states do not have the diversity we do and that is fine. We see appropriate culture everywhere. I did not see the show, so I don’t know the outfits worn or anything about it. As an ESL teacher who has worked overseas and in the states, it is also important to know English. I have met plenty of students who are lazy with learning English. Just an observation. I speak some Spanish, French, and English. I should know more Spanish but on the other hand, when they start discussing me in Spanish, I don’t know. LOL.

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      4. I grew up in New Jersey, which was culturally diverse and rich with many different sounds and flavors. Now I live in Maine, which for the most part is not. America has always been a melting pot, it’s where we draw our strength. Today’s division is not healthy … for us or our country.

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      5. I think my parents from NYC were ahead of the crowds years ago moving to the Catskills. The first wave of intercultural marriages inhabited the areas near by with summer homes. My parents were friends with an interesting group of people. My mom spoke Spanish fluently. She encouraged us to learn another language. I was good with French and spend a few years after college in France working. I appreciate other cultures but sometimes they do not include me in some things. My mom’s best friend was a Jewish man who married a beautiful nurse from the islands who was a creole speaker. Her sister became a well known model in NYC. This was way back so long ago before the culture of appropriateness. I just accepted it as normal and moved on. I didn’t see the event you speak of because currently we have larger matters to attend to. It is what it is. I do admire the discipline of many other countries with focusing on learning languages and supporting English as the language of business.

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      6. When I was young I loved going to my friend’s houses because things were different. The food, the music, the traditions. It’s a shame some people lose that sense of wonder and discovery when they become adults.

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      7. Yeah, I have always enjoyed going overseas but not everybody in foreign countries is open, also. I can remember how boring I thought the French were discussing politics and 2 hour lunches and the danger of marxism, socialism. I was bored out of my mind but the food was good. I guess we have all become like the French discussing politics with different viewpoints. We are all boring. LOL.

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      8. I think the French point of view was that if I was going to enjoy the wonderful food, I better be prepared to learn from the politics and listen to them. I guess I did and learned a few things. As long as I am not excluded intentionally by a foreign language, that makes me extremely uncomfortable when something is forced upon me to purposely exclude me. I have had that happen in a few cultures and it was not pleasant.

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      10. They could be very kind and also very judgmental. Those from the small villages were much kinder than the Parisiennes who if you mispronounced a word would deliberately ignore you. Even if they spoke English, you were supposed to know French. Anyway, I don’t want to hog your blog, but if we don’t know what the lyrics might mean, that is a slippery slope, also. Thanks for listening.

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      11. That being said, their luncheon conversations were on target. They saw the future and were aware of several things happening which some did not care for. I can appreciate them now. France is different. I hope for the best for them.

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      12. I would also say in Florida Spanish language, especially Cuban culture and language is widely used and respected. We have many varieties of Spanish spoken here but most of the Cubans do speak English and use it. They are well respected in Florida.

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  4. Yes!! Definitely not my type of music, but the halftime show was creative and inspiring and sent the perfect positive message to offset all the hateful vitriol spewing forth from the fascist regime in charge. It’s exactly what we needed. I am all in.

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  5. I sat down with a cup of coffee and opened your blog, expecting some funny snark: before I was done reading I had to grab a box of tissues before I literally started crying in my coffee. I liked Bad Bunny’s music before the blowup over his halftime show, but I didn’t think about his performance very deeply until I read your post. It’s good to be reminded we really are a nation of many languages and cultures, and that has always been our superpower.

    In California, Spanish is not a “foreign language.” (I have heard people from other Hispanic countries say it’s “not real Spanish,” but hey, I wouldn’t know and most wouldn’t care.) I used to work at a school where over half the students attending were from Latino/Spanish speaking homes: I never became fluent but I did learn “Yo no se” (I dunno) and “No mas! Deja de hacerlo!” (No more! Knock it off!) I also love that I am surrounded by Mexican restaurants and I can order in Spanish. Life is richer when you know another language.

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  6. If you were watching the Legion of Boom, you were watching a rerun from 10 years ago. It was The Dark Side that dominated that game.

    Senator Garrett put it eloquently. And Bad Bunny made it clear that “America” refers to more than one country, and I’m so glad he named them. It is two continents. And not all Americans are from northern Europe. Duh.

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  7. My DIL’s sister played viola with Green Day yesterday. As far as Bad Bunny, I learned from another blogger something I did not know at all. His lyrics are obscene and degrade women. It was from a Spanish speaking blogger, so he obviously knows something I did not. I looked it up and it’s true.

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    1. I don’t know his music, honestly this was the first time I’ve ever seen or heard him. But I had a friend post about his lyrics too. It’s disturbing, no doubt.
      But I’ve also read good things about his songs, which is confusing.
      Even AI is on the fence.

      “In summary, while Bad Bunny’s earlier work and the general genre of reggaeton have strong roots in sexist,, or “machista” tropes that can be considered demeaning, he is also recognized for incorporating pro-feminist, queer-friendly, and progressive messages that break from those traditions.”

      I’m just blogging about this particular show and this message.

      Awesome about your DIL’s sister.
      👍

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      1. I have never heard of him either before the Super Bowl. I’ve seen some very disturbing lyrics of his, plus read what you posted.

        I saw my DIL sister’s post on Instagram. She looked gorgeous in a long black dress. But she said she was behind all the cameras and not visible. I watched a YouTube of Green Day’s performance and couldn’t spot her.

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  8. I watched it and LOVED his performance. I understood every single word sung by all the artists because I understand Spanish. I’m can also read and write in Spanish. I also saw a lot of nasty comments on YouTube this morning regarding his performance. Especially to those bitching about ”This is America, and we speak English here.” I posted some responses, some not so nice because their comments weren’t either. But basically the gist of it was, we are a land of all kinds of people. If your stupid enough to think English has always been the only language here, you wasted all you time in school not learning anything. Native Americans were here before the English, the Spanish were here before the English, the Mexicans were here before the English. And apparently, we’re now finding that the Vikings (the people not the football team 😆) might have actually preceded the Spanish. We ARE a country of many cultures and backgrounds. So to those who can’t speak any other language and demand that only English be spoken because they aren’t diverse, your the problem not the 40 million people who are multicultural and multilingual. I loved what you posted from that government official posted on her account. She is 100% right!

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    1. Good point. English was certainly not the first language spoken here.
      I simply don’t understand the big hissy fit that was thrown about him performing in Spanish. Shakira and J Lo did back in 2020 and no one minded.

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