A New National Anthem
Radical proposal: a law is passed whereby every 30 years (a generation, give or take) we vote on a new national anthem. The incumbent will be retired (if voted out) and the new one will be taught to all school children and played at ballgames. This way, we can ensure that the PEOPLE, not the PAST, determine what song should represent us across the world. Even if this every-30-years proposal doesn’t pass, I still think we should come up with a new anthem. There isn’t anything particularly wrong with “The Star-Spangled Banner”, other than the whole slavery thing; the fact that it’s a British song; and that most Americans (more than 2/3rds) don’t even know the lyrics. I mean, other than all of that, it’s perfect.
Look, I am not an “anthem basher” by any means. I’ve stood along the blue line of hockey games and listened to it with pride. It’s rare for me to hear that song and not tear up a little. But it’s not the beauty or relatability of the lyrics that get me: it’s the context. I think about my grandfather, a WW2 hero who taught me about airplanes. I think about all the boys lost in Vietnam (avg. age of soldiers: 19. We don’t even let 19-year-olds buy cigarettes where I live). I think about war criminals lying us into two very costly wars. But mostly, I think about the soldiers who have died, or worse, the ones that came home to hatred, mental illness, substance abuse, and poverty.
My oldest acquaintance is a doctor who works as a Sexual Trauma Specialist with veterans. It’s a job that is exactly what it sounds like. She herself is a disabled veteran who served our country in the Air Force. Without her influence, I would have a very different view of the military. It is easy for civilians to separate out the governmental structure of the military and the soldiers who serve. For us, there are two things: the men and women in uniform and the bureaucracy that surrounds and props them up. In order for the armed forces to be successful, there needs to be an almost absolute belief in and obedience to a hierarchical power structure. Imagine a bunch of soldiers fighting along the front lines. Without the chain of command, how would they accomplish anything? Hold an impromptu committee meeting in a bunker? It is that devotion to the upward flow of power that keeps the whole thing going. It is the thread that our beads of democracy are held together by.
When the anthem plays, I think about those soldiers who miss their kids’ birthdays, family holidays, or even just their buddies. But the ones who come home and struggle to live are the ones who really break my heart. I don’t think I’ve agreed with most American military actions over the past half-century. It has largely been for the benefit of corporations and monied interests. Rarely democracy. Worse still, it is rarely ever the wealthy and elite who serve to secure those ends. It is easy to sentence people you’ll never meet or have to care about to die. As long as a buck gets made in the process, it’s worth it. And while I would love to grab every kid who’s joining up thinking he (or she) is serving some higher, noble purpose and make them understand the truth, it is actually my lack of understanding about THEIR TRUTH that keeps me in the dark.
No one who sacrifices what serving in the military costs should ever have to worry about healthcare or employment again. I truly believe that. You sign up, you go fight (or whatever else, there’s lots of ways to serve without shooting guns), then you get healthcare forever and guaranteed employment until retirement. And it’s not because I think the military is super special. Frankly, if higher education was more affordable and accessible, the military would have a much smaller pool of people to choose from. Instead, I feel indebted to veterans because they take the very real risk that their lives will never be the same. Death, hey, that’s war. But PTSD? Sexual trauma? Hell came home with some of our soldiers. For me, it ain’t the dying that makes me weep. It’s what some people have to live with. The heavy burden for which relief rarely comes easily and without penalty.
So that’s what I think about when it plays. I think about my friend and all the bravery and sacrifice our comfortable life requires. But guess what. THAT’S JUST ME. This is my exclusive experience that has nothing to do with anyone else. Most people don’t even know who I’m talking about. Less than one half of one percent of Americans are in the military. It’s a super small number. It’s not even two million. AARP has nearly 30 times more members! Certainly, those 1.3 million people have reverberations out into their families and communities, so the number of people impacted by the military is a lot larger. But for most people, military sacrifice is a foreign concept. And since America is based on the whole freedom thing, it’s important for the anthem to represent all Americans. Not just the ones who love the troops and the flag.
The author of the lyrics to the “Star-Spangled Banner”, Francis Scott Key, grew up surrounded by slaves on a plantation. His life was shaped by slavery so it’s no surprise that it finds it’s way into his words. And not in a good way. It’s in the third verse of the song. And while most people don’t know anything beyond the first verse, it is still part of the song. That is a fact. Upon first glance, the reference might not seem to be offensive. Here’s what the lyrics say:
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
OK, it mentions slavery but it doesn’t seem to have any overt and obvious opinion on it. Well, my friend, that is because you’re an ignorant slut. The “hireling and slave” he refers to are actually escaped slaves that formed an army to fight for the freedom of the enslaved. In other words, our anthem literally has a verse that celebrates beating back and killing black abolitionists. NOT A GREAT LOOK. And of course, Key would be happy about that, since he (and his family) benefited from the labor of slaves. This isn’t speculation. He was very outspoken on the matter. If he had his way, all the free blacks would have been shipped off to Africa. This is the dude whose song is supposed to speak for every American? If he were alive today, he wouldn’t even WANT black folks saluting his song, let alone kneeling. Again, these are facts, not speculation.
F. Scott Key would shit himself if he saw this. How can we ask our fellow citizens to respect a song whose author didn’t feel the same?
Sure, it’s only part of a widely unknown third verse, but come on man! This is America! We can do better. We’ve produced some of the greatest musicians and artists in history. We don’t have to settle for some half-rate song written by an avowed and proud racist. He didn’t even write the music! If you really want to get into it, he just pasted his words over a song that predates him by decades. It’s called "The Anacreontic Song: To Anacreon in Heaven" and it’s from 17th-century BRITAIN. Have a listen, it sucks (skip to 00:10 if you don’t want to wait):
I feel like I’m making a pretty good case here. Let’s review:
Since the anthem is intended to represent ALL Americans, it’s OK if it means something different to everyone. There is no “correct” way to appreciate the song.
As such, having a song written by a slave-owning racist who wanted to literally deport our fellow citizens to Africa, maybe isn’t the best way to achieve that aim.
The song itself explicitly mentions slavery and also advocates for the murder of free blacks. Our collective ignorance of this fact does not make it untrue.
The music, the part that most people recognize, isn’t even American and predates America entirely. It’s from a stuffy “gentlemen’s club” in Britain, the very people who we are fighting against in the song. It’s almost too much irony.
Lastly, it’s not like this is a long-standing tradition we’ve been doing since the beginning. There are people alive today who were not taught a national anthem as children. Why? Because we didn’t have one until the 1930s. We haven’t even been doing this for 100 years. If black people are supposed to get over generational trauma like chattel slavery in 100 years, white people can have their racist song changed.
Why keep it? I mean that sincerely. Other than sentimentality, which is important, what reason is there to keep it? Why are we so protective of it? What is it about a racist song that advocates for the continued subjugation of black folks in a country founded on the principles of white supremacy that people like so much? I wonder…
Look, I get that most people probably are totally unaware of the slavery connections. That’s fine. But now you know. Are you going to spread knowledge or ignorance? Why are (white) people so afraid to question the foundational aspects of white supremacy? No longer can we hide behind “tradition”. Tradition is what kept our fellow citizens in bondage for hundreds of years. Tradition is what denied millions of Americans the right to love who they choose. We must confront and accept the past in order to have a more equal future.
Whatever your connection to or emotions towards the anthem, it is a choice. It is not an accident or happenstance that you feel the way you do. You were taught to love it. You were taught to stand for it, to place your hand over your heart (because that’s how magical promises are made), and to take off your hat. None of this superstitious stuff is carved in stone or in our nature. A bunch of white men decided a while back that THIS is the proper way to do things and that was that. But it isn’t the only way, and in a country based on freedom, cannot be the only way.
So let’s open things up for debate once again. This time, we’ll include everyone. Not just wealthy white men (the only people serving in office at the time). We’ll let black folks decide. Latinx people. Native peoples and Asians. Everyone. All of us will come together and choose something that represents the best of us. Together as one.*
*LOL JK this’ll start the Second Civil War.