Read this story:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/protesters-bring-statue-francis-key-scott/story?id=71359718
Protesters bring down statue of Francis Scott Key
Key, who wrote the national anthem, was a slave owner.
The statue of Francis Scott Key, who is known for writing “The Star-Spangled Banner” but was a slave owner, was toppled by protesters in San Francisco during demonstrations against racial injustice.
Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” after he saw an American flag flying at the Battle of Fort McHenry following a victory over the British in the War of 1812. The lines he wrote turned into the national anthem.
However, Key — whose lyrics include “land of the free” — was an owner of slaves and defended in court slaveholders’ rights to own human property, according to The Smithsonian.
Protesters walk towards the statue of Francis Scott Key at the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, June 19, 2020.The toppling of the statue comes amid protests that erupted across the world after the death of George Floyd, who was killed in police custody, against systemic racism and police brutality.
During some of those protests, monuments related to slave owners or the Confederacy have been toppled.
As of Friday afternoon, at least 22 cities had either removed or approved the removal of Confederate monuments. The most controversial of those memorials, the Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia, is caught up in a legal battle.
Even ignoring that Francis Scott Key owned slaves (so did many of the Founding Fathers) there are at least four reasons why the song, “The Star Spangled Banner” was never worthy to be our national anthem and must be replaced.
First, its very first line excludes blind people. “Oh say can you see….”
Second, it is about a specific event in American history, not about America in general.
Third, it glorifies WAR and we should be striving to be a peaceful nation, not a warlike one.
Fourth, it discriminates against religious groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who claim saluting the America flag is a form of idolatry. Therefore it violates the First Amendment.
Strangely, only ONE of the four verses of that song are sung as the national anthem. Here are all four:
https://www.dictionary.com/e/star-spangled-banner/
O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s 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?
_________________
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
’Tis the star-spangled banner—O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
_________________________
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 wash’d out their foul footstep’s 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.
___________________________
O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto – “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
We can do better than this crap! I propose we replace “The Star Spangled Banner” with “America the Beautiful”. Here are the lyrics to that song:
http://www.americathebeautiful.com/lyrics2.htm
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stem impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man’s avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!
But there is a song even more beautiful and inclusive than that which could serve as our national anthem.
Here are the lyrics to that:
How green are your valleys, how blue your great skies,
Your mountains stand tall in their glory:
Your rivers run free – the bright stars are your eyes,
Your beauty is endless before me.
CHORUS You are the song ever singing in me, And you are the heart ever true:
For, you are my land and you always will be,
The voice ever calling me… home to you.
When times we are far from your forests and streams,
When sailing from your shining waters:
We carry your hopes – your spirit, your dreams-
In the hearts of your sons and your daughters.
CHORUS You are the song ever singing in me, And you are the heart ever true:
For, you are my land and you always will be,
The voice ever calling me… home to you.
When to your green valleys some day I return,
When you lay your mantle around me:
At rest I will be where the heart will not yearn,
With my land to ever…surround me.
CHORUS (x2) You are the song ever singing in me,
And you are the heart ever true: For, you are my land and you always will be,
The voice ever calling me… home to you.
The voice ever calling me…home to you.
Now THAT is a song I will always be proud to sing. I can’t even bring myself to sing the current anthem at all!
Dale Husband's Intellectual Rants 