Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Time for a New National Anthem

One that we can all stand for. Mostly just wanted to link to this Shaun King column in today's Daily News.

Like Kaepernick, I've had enough of injustice in America and I've had enough of anthems written by bigots. Colin Kaepernick has provided a spark.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" should've never been made into our national anthem. That President Woodrow Wilson, widely thought to be one of the most bigoted presidents ever elected, chose it as our national anthem, is painfully telling as well. We must do away with it like South Africans did away with their monument to Cecil Rhodes. We must do away with it like South Carolina did with the Confederate Flag over their state house.

It was a song that was written by a racist and pushed into becoming the national anthem by another racist. 

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.

Yes, that's the third verse

The Star-Spangled Banner” is as much a patriotic song as it is a diss track to black people who had the audacity to fight for their freedom. 

And since I know everyone wonders what Tony Stewart thinks about Kaepernick sitting during the national anthem. What is really even more important is what others think of Stewart's opinions.


Veterans, who have fought and bled for the country, have begun explaining why what Kaepernick did is the greatest form of freedom and expression — the freedom to protest.

What branch of the military did Stewart serve in? None, that I could find. He did play trombone in a marching band, though. And, of course, he has killed a guy with his race car.


"You have a right to protest!" And a duty.

7 comments:

  1. The Goopers never get this sort of thing. They think patriotism should be forced on citizens. They know nothing about the true meaning of freedom.

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  2. I don't pay much attention to football anyway. I've been seeing coaches with these camo headsets and baseball caps all the time lately. It's as if they all want to claim military heroism by proxy. That disgusts me a lot more than someone sitting during the anthem as a protest.

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  3. A damning quote (from the song). I had no idea. This needs to be made better known.

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  4. Infidel, I'm hoping that some aspiring African American singer will take it upon himself to substitute that verse sometime in the near future just to give it a little more notice.

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  5. I agree with you that "The Star Spangled Banner" is a terrible national anthem, but I haven't seen any suggestions for replacements. I'll pitch in my two cents worth by suggesting "America the Beautiful," "America" (sung to the melody of "God Save the Queen"), or "Hail, Columbia." If nothing else, all of them are easier to sing.

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  6. America the beautiful would be good. This land is your land would be great, with the added bonus of being written by a card-carrying communist.

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