I'm certainly no historian, but I believe the national anthem personifies the original sacrifice of our founding families so that we could obtain nationhood. It recognizes what was necessary in the past in order to get to a point where we can envision a better future. Nobody wants to go back to bombs bursting in air, but without that reminder we would forget what it took to secure the freedoms we have today. It's not the identity of who we are as citizens (that would be the Declaration of Independence), but what was necessary to become citizens in the first place.
I like how you're talking about various subjects that have a reoccurring theme of home. It gets readers thinking about the broader scope of belonging and what that means 👍
What an evocative essay! There are tradeoffs with any of these options for the American anthem, because conquest is inevitably tethered to each of them. I rather like the straightforwardness of the Star Spangled Banner. It captures, more than America the Beautiful, the bloody history that has defined our country, and not just during the Revolutionary War. I had a student write an essay once on American greatness (I had asked, around the 2016 election, Is America Great?). Her first half began, "America is not great. America has never been great." That half was a litany of genocide, slavery, and abuses against women. The second half began, "America is great. America has always been great." That half chronicled the efforts, since the country's inception, of reformers to work toward a more perfect and just union. I don't hear that complexity in America the Beautiful? I especially cringe at the juxtaposition of those lyrics against Mount Rushmore, which is a national disgrace: arrogance literally hacked into the Sioux's sacred homeland. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rushmore-sioux/
Mt Rushmore is absolutely an example of ego, domination, and false narrative. It is indeed a disgrace. It is not lost on me, however, that the words appearing over this photo are words that no one remembers: "God mend thy every flaw , Confirm thy soul in self-control" ... This, to me, is a prayer - a prayer that recognizes the good along with the bad. I don't see that complexity in The Star Spangled Banner. Instead, I see a narrative that, in fact, led to the genocide, slavery and abuses that your student outlined. A history that needs to be taught and is deliberately and systematically being buried and silenced. Instead, we are still teaching lies about discovering an empty land (it wasn't - by some estimates more people lived here than in all of Europe), viscous Indians (we were the ruthless ones, not them), and freedom for all (which, when the constitution was written meant only for all wealthy white men). These are the lies I see perpetuated in The Star Spangled Banner. The bloody history is only worth remembering if it is explicit and honest and if we are able to specifically relate it to today - to black service men killed once they returned home, just for being black, to female soldiers raped at an estimated 50 per day, and having the 2nd highest number of gun-related deaths in the world (as reported this year by worldpopulationreview.com). Percentage-wise, the number of soldier casualties has risen with every war since the revolution. I just don't see how the narrative in our anthem is making things better.
Good points. "America the Beautiful" was written in 1895 and was largely meant to be rhapsodic in a way that could encourage forgetting a bloody past. But, as you say, mending flaws could resonate with the notion of a steadily more perfect union, Barack Obama's metaphor, and a useful antidote to the City on the Hill. I can be persuaded! By the way, I cite your chosen family post in my upcoming newsletter. Glad to have this conversation going :)
Thank you for the plug, Joshua. I look forward to seeing that. Glad to be in conversation with you as well! The interesting thing about this post is that somehow it didn't go out to my entire subscription base. So weird. Can't figure out why or what happened. Will probably repost it again at some point. Hope your time in CR is going well!
I'm certainly no historian, but I believe the national anthem personifies the original sacrifice of our founding families so that we could obtain nationhood. It recognizes what was necessary in the past in order to get to a point where we can envision a better future. Nobody wants to go back to bombs bursting in air, but without that reminder we would forget what it took to secure the freedoms we have today. It's not the identity of who we are as citizens (that would be the Declaration of Independence), but what was necessary to become citizens in the first place.
I like how you're talking about various subjects that have a reoccurring theme of home. It gets readers thinking about the broader scope of belonging and what that means 👍
We sang two verses, first and last, of the Star Spangled Banner every day at the school I attended.
What an evocative essay! There are tradeoffs with any of these options for the American anthem, because conquest is inevitably tethered to each of them. I rather like the straightforwardness of the Star Spangled Banner. It captures, more than America the Beautiful, the bloody history that has defined our country, and not just during the Revolutionary War. I had a student write an essay once on American greatness (I had asked, around the 2016 election, Is America Great?). Her first half began, "America is not great. America has never been great." That half was a litany of genocide, slavery, and abuses against women. The second half began, "America is great. America has always been great." That half chronicled the efforts, since the country's inception, of reformers to work toward a more perfect and just union. I don't hear that complexity in America the Beautiful? I especially cringe at the juxtaposition of those lyrics against Mount Rushmore, which is a national disgrace: arrogance literally hacked into the Sioux's sacred homeland. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rushmore-sioux/
Your student's essay reminds me of the Jeff Daniels monologue in Newsroom (written by Aaron Sorkin) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyzDRc34l2g Always worth rewatching.
Mt Rushmore is absolutely an example of ego, domination, and false narrative. It is indeed a disgrace. It is not lost on me, however, that the words appearing over this photo are words that no one remembers: "God mend thy every flaw , Confirm thy soul in self-control" ... This, to me, is a prayer - a prayer that recognizes the good along with the bad. I don't see that complexity in The Star Spangled Banner. Instead, I see a narrative that, in fact, led to the genocide, slavery and abuses that your student outlined. A history that needs to be taught and is deliberately and systematically being buried and silenced. Instead, we are still teaching lies about discovering an empty land (it wasn't - by some estimates more people lived here than in all of Europe), viscous Indians (we were the ruthless ones, not them), and freedom for all (which, when the constitution was written meant only for all wealthy white men). These are the lies I see perpetuated in The Star Spangled Banner. The bloody history is only worth remembering if it is explicit and honest and if we are able to specifically relate it to today - to black service men killed once they returned home, just for being black, to female soldiers raped at an estimated 50 per day, and having the 2nd highest number of gun-related deaths in the world (as reported this year by worldpopulationreview.com). Percentage-wise, the number of soldier casualties has risen with every war since the revolution. I just don't see how the narrative in our anthem is making things better.
Good points. "America the Beautiful" was written in 1895 and was largely meant to be rhapsodic in a way that could encourage forgetting a bloody past. But, as you say, mending flaws could resonate with the notion of a steadily more perfect union, Barack Obama's metaphor, and a useful antidote to the City on the Hill. I can be persuaded! By the way, I cite your chosen family post in my upcoming newsletter. Glad to have this conversation going :)
Thank you for the plug, Joshua. I look forward to seeing that. Glad to be in conversation with you as well! The interesting thing about this post is that somehow it didn't go out to my entire subscription base. So weird. Can't figure out why or what happened. Will probably repost it again at some point. Hope your time in CR is going well!