National Anthems
Aug. 30th, 2016 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauradi7dwThere has been some ruckus in the past few days because of a football player who remained seated as a protest during the Star Spangled Banner. Of course he should be able to do this, no matter what the reason, but he's right that the anthem is problematic, as is (was?) Francis Scott Key. It was pretty nervy to be both a slaver and a writer of the line "land of the free." I like that the first stanza ends in a question mark, but if you add the other stanzas, that stops being true. I like the tune. I remember a Pogo cartoon in which Miz Mam'selle Hepzibah said that it's a good thing to have a challenging tune (not the way she said it), because it requires all kinds of people singing together to get all the notes.
So I think we need to have a national contest to make up new words for the same tune. I want the name of the country (United States) in the lyrics, I don't want any mention of deities or armed forces or enemies or the flag. It needs to mention natural beauty and good people ("America the beautiful" is deity-filled and calls us America, so unlike some people, I'm not advocating we switch in that way).
Maybe some acknowledgement of US history, like "we're sorry about all the genocide and slavery but we're trying to be better."
"The New Colossus" doesn't fit, and it is pretty narrow, although having the Statue of Liberty as our national symbol instead of the flag would be an improvement. In one of his last Nightly shows, Larry Wilmore used the expression "I'm with her" to indicate the Statue of Liberty. I agree. If I were going with something like The New Colossus, I'd chose Neil Diamond's "America" instead, but in neither case does it include folks who have always been here(at least back to Clovis times)or even people like me, whose ancestors came hundreds of years ago. Not on a plane, for sure.
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/neildiamond/america.html
Arthur and I joked about having "Fifty Nifty United States" as the anthem, but what happens when we finally add DC and Puerto Rico?
http://bussongs.com/songs/fifty-nifty-united-states.php
So I think we need to have a national contest to make up new words for the same tune. I want the name of the country (United States) in the lyrics, I don't want any mention of deities or armed forces or enemies or the flag. It needs to mention natural beauty and good people ("America the beautiful" is deity-filled and calls us America, so unlike some people, I'm not advocating we switch in that way).
Maybe some acknowledgement of US history, like "we're sorry about all the genocide and slavery but we're trying to be better."
"The New Colossus" doesn't fit, and it is pretty narrow, although having the Statue of Liberty as our national symbol instead of the flag would be an improvement. In one of his last Nightly shows, Larry Wilmore used the expression "I'm with her" to indicate the Statue of Liberty. I agree. If I were going with something like The New Colossus, I'd chose Neil Diamond's "America" instead, but in neither case does it include folks who have always been here(at least back to Clovis times)or even people like me, whose ancestors came hundreds of years ago. Not on a plane, for sure.
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/neildiamond/america.html
Arthur and I joked about having "Fifty Nifty United States" as the anthem, but what happens when we finally add DC and Puerto Rico?
http://bussongs.com/songs/fifty-nifty-united-states.php
