That Baptist Ain't Right: July 2010

Friday, July 2, 2010

America Needs a New National Anthem

Today I will say it. Make no mistake about it. I want to make sure I'm saying this in the most emphatic way possible: I can't stand America's national anthem.

There. Finally it is out in the open & maybe some other people will start open discussions about what they've privately thought for a long, long time.

America's national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, is rich in history & meaning & all that, but it has outlived its purpose. Its hard to sing: everyone struggles with it (unless you a trained vocalist blessed with pipes) & hardly anybody knows the words. The tune is really, really hard to carry. Really.

Worst of all, it's boring. B-O-R-I-N-G.

There is nothing that makes you want to jump to your feet, wave the flag, slap high fives with your buddies or kiss the pretty girls (like you need an excuse for that anyway, but let's not waste a good opportunity, ya know). It is just kinda there & is nothing all that special.

America is the land of the free & the home of the brave. The land where everyone is a first class citizen, with the free scotch & the complimentary warm towels.

The US of A deserves an anthem that makes the rest of the world jealous.

So I propose we change our national anthem to something with some style, pizazz & soul. Since Sweet Home Alabama is about single state & the other 49 would be ticked off, that one is off the list. Pity. James Brown's Living in America would really kick butt over any other anthem, but I think there might be a wee bit of opposition from the more prudish. Maybe Queen's We Will Rock You is available ...

I found this video below. It is from Celtic Thunder (official site; Wiki link). The song is Ireland's Call, the anthem for the Irish National Rugby team. Sure, it is not the national anthem but just look at the reaction to the audience. That's what I'm talking about.

This, my fellow Americans, makes you wanna cheer. It makes you wanna stand up, applaud, poke your chest out & say I'm proud. It's a kick butt song. Something like this is what we need as America's new national anthem.

So who's with me?
Michael Kinsley's op-ed piece

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"The notion of a Christian commonwealth should be exploded forever. ... Government should protect every man in thinking and speaking freely, and see that one does not abuse another. The liberty I contend for is more than toleration. The very idea of toleration is despicable; it supposes that some have a pre-eminence above the rest to grant indulgence, whereas all should be equally free, Jews, Turks, Pagans and Christians."
--- John Leland, Colonial Virginia Baptist, "A Chronicle of His Time in Virginia," as cited in Forrest Church, The Separation of Church and State, 92 (2004).

"Religious matters are to be separated from the jurisdiction of the state, not because they are beneath the interests of the state but, quite to the contrary, because they are too high and holy and thus are beyond the competence of the state."
--- Isaac Backus, New England Colonial Baptist, An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty, 1773.

" 'The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live and fear breeds repression. Too often, sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-Communism. Today, it's the cloak of anti-terrorism.' [Adlai] Stevenson also remarked, 'It's far easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.' "
--- Adlai Stevenson as quoted by TV lawyer Alan Shore on Boston Legal in the courtroom scene "Stick It."

"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. . . Our government. . . teaches the whole people by its example. . . If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
--- Justice Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. United States in the dissenting opinion, later vindicated in Katz v. United States.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be draped in the flag and carrying a bible."
--- Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here, 1935. (Common spurious attribution, but an oh-so-true statement.)

“Hope has two beautiful daughters: their names are anger and courage. Anger that things are the way they are. Courage to make them the way they ought to be.”
--- St Augustine.

"To think deeply in our culture is to grow angry and to anger others; and if you cannot tolerate this anger, you are wasting the time you spend thinking deeply. One of the rewards to deep thought is the hot glow of anger at discovering a wrong, but if anger is taboo, thought will starve to death."
---Jules Henry, Culture Against Man, 1963.

"I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death."
--- George Carlin (1937-2008) .

"Honesty is not something you flirt with — you should be married to it."
--- Table Top at Joe's Crab House, Aurora, CO.

"It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't."

--- Martin Van Buren.

"The Religious Right is a reminder as to why we have the 1st Amendment --- people can't resist forcing their religious interpretations onto others if others won't willingly acquiesce."
--- TBAR, 07/04/08.

"I'd rather have an honest Atheist in power than a corrupt Christian."
--- Ed Edwards, 09/01/08

“Government has no more to do with the religious opinions of men than it has with the principles of mathematics. Let every man speak freely without fear, maintain the principles that he believes, worship according to his own faith, either one God, three Gods, no God or twenty Gods; and let government protect him in so doing, i.e., see that he meets with no personal abuse, or loss of property, for his religious opinions....”
--- John Leland, Colonial Virginia Baptist minister and religious liberty advocate, The Rights of Conscience Inalienable, 1791 pamphlet.

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Friday, July 2, 2010

America Needs a New National Anthem

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