Should the President Have Attended Concert Featuring Rapper Who Once Sang Anti-American Song?

A furor arose recently when it was learned that President Barack Obama would be attending a traditional Christmas concert this year that includes an appearance by PSY, the Korean rapper who has become a media sensation with his song “Gangnam Style.” The concert raises money for a charity concert and has been attended by the current First Family since 1981.

The fallout is over anti-American sentiments PSY espoused in a song back in 2004 with words that advocated killing American soldiers and their families “slowly and painfully,” PSY sang the words following non-guilty verdict in an American court for the two American men charged with killing two 14-year-old South Korean girls after hitting them with 50-ton tank and also after a South Korean missionary was beheaded by Iraqi militants after South Korea sent 3,000 troops there.

Although Obama shook PSY's hand following the concert, he did not mention him in his speech to the crowd, the Washington Post reports.

A petition objecting to the president's attendance that went up on the White House petition website was promptly removed, according to an article in The Daily Mail. It was reported to have “violated the terms of participation,” although it is not clear what terms those were.

Veterans and families of American soldiers reportedly took to the airwaves and the Twitttersphere urging the president not to attend the concert or to have PSY scrapped from the lineup.

The White House has reportedly confirmed that the president will be in attendance, as is tradition, and the Korean rapper remains on the lineup. PSY has since apologized for his 2004 anti-American lyrics. 

What do you think? Should everyone let bygones be bygones or should the president have asked that PSY be struck from the lineup as a term of his attendance?