 |
… became the official national anthem of the United States on this date in 1931. You know what that means? For 155 years is was not the official national anthem. For just 77 years it has been. We could change it. It isn’t etched in granite. |
The first (of four) verses:
O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Who wants a national anthem that glorifies war?
Not me! “America the Beautiful”, is fine by me. Or, “This Land Is Your Land”.
How about “Over There!”
You know,
“Send the word! Send the word!
Over there!
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming!
And we won’t come back ’til it’s over over there!”
@SnoLeopard: good one. Uncomfortably appropriate, at present.
@John: “America the Beautiful”, absolutely. I’d be perfectly okay with the Wood Guthrie song, although some folks find the later verses a bit discomfiting… 🙂
I vote for “This Land,” too, though I’m sure it’s too political for lapel-pin patriots.
Many years ago, Ry Cooder recorded a great rendition of Rally Round the Flag. See The Long Riders (1980).
Ken- Do you read The Edge of the American West? (Excerpt below.) Recommended. peace, mjh
Last refuge
And what were Herbert Hoover and the Congress up to? Making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the National Anthem. The Senate passed the law on March 3, and Hoover appears to have signed it the same day, as it entered the statute books that day, at 46 Stat. 1508. Plenty of objections were raised; the Music Supervisors National Conference complained that “the sentiments expressed in ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ are not representative of a peace-loving nation.” Faculty at Teachers College, Columbia, agreed on its unsuitability, not because “it was sung originally, with different words, in English taverns by boisterous tradesmen. What they opposed was its martial flavor…
http://edgeofthewest.wordpress.com/2008/03/03/last-refuge/
The “Star Spangled Banner” is not glorifying war. It is glorifying liberty, and it asks the question to you today, “does the flag fly over a land of the free and home of the brave?” The fact that it was penned during the war of 1812 only points to the fact that liberty is a fragile thing and can be lost regardless of whether the flag is still flying over us. The “Star Spangled Banner” is both beautiful and timeless. It reminds us of our history, the sacrifice of millions of Americans to preserve our freedom, and the simple truth that tyrrany is an enemy to us all. Whlle you have a right to object to the song (thanks to the passion and efforts of our ancestors), I think it contains a much more powerful sentiment than “America The Beautiful” which is nonetheless a nice patriotic song itself.
I was thinking more along the lines of something from Dylan — “Gotta Serve Somebody” perhaps.