Contemporary uses of black women vocalists at times of national crisis is not always an act of cynical co-optation. If this voice soothed white children in the early days of the nation, then it nurtured whites in the same way those black women nannies and mammies did and thereby became a mark of their identity as well. Furthermore, because of its ability to express human longing for love, freedom, and spiritual meaning, it is representative of much of the human condition. Whether it be a people's longing for home or freedom or a nation's longing for an idealized vision of itself, the moment that voice joins the air, like the blue notes it renders, it is a voice that brings with it a specific, collective history capable of expressing human desire. It is grounded in that tradition and yet, like a butterfly, it is transcendent, ephemeral, beautiful, and free.