Forced ritual
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave – very very much free, top free, most free of any anywhere.
With just a week to go before the legislative session ends in Texas, a host of bills are making their way to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.
One of the pieces of legislation still under consideration would require sports teams to play the national anthem at games.
So there! You have to stand up for this anthem if you go to a sports game, and the teams have to play this one song if they do a sports game. Have to, I tell you, it’s mandatory and required and a legal obligation. That’s FREEDOM. You there, why isn’t your hand on your chest? You tryna get arrested or what?
Dubbed the “Star Spangled Banner Protection Act,” Senate Bill 4 would apply to professional sports teams that receive government funds from the state of Texas, requiring them to play the song.
Professional sports teams get money from the state of Texas. Why is that? Don’t they make a profit? Why do they get government money? Texas couldn’t spend the money on more pressing needs?
According to The Texas Tribune, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made the bill one of his legislative priorities after Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban stopped playing the anthem before home games.
Freedom freedom freedom – which of course does not include freedom to stop playing one particular song.
We ARE land of free n home of brave but that doesn’t mean you get to not sing this one song! Oh hell no. We’ll pass a law to make you sing it or else. Because freedom.
In a public response to the outcry condemning his decision, Cuban expressed support for the anthem, but he said team executives “also loudly hear the voices of those who feel that the anthem does not represent them.” The NBA later said all teams would play the anthem before games.
But why? Seriously, bitter jokes aside, why? Why is this a rule? Games are games, what do they have to do with singing a national song? We don’t have to sing the song in other settings or on other occasions. Why sports games?
Wearing masks to prevent serious disease = tyranny, loss of freedom, fascism, Holocaust
Requiring sports teams to play one specific song = all the good things. Not tyranny at all. Not loss of freedom, no.
Mandate: wear a mask so you don’t get sick or make others sick is a violation of our most cherished freedoms. You can’t tell me what to do. Stand up for a song? On command of the government? Oh, sure, no problem.
Do these people ever stop to listen to the stupidity they spout?
Amazing that they don’t force them to sing the line “No refuge could save / the hireling and slave / from the terror of night and the gloom of the grave”, or however it goes. You know, the one about how great it is to see the slaughter of the the slaves of the Americans, who fought for the British in 1812 in order to gain their freedom.
Isaac Asimov’s short story “No Refuge Could Save” is about this line. The protagonist is trying to determine if a certain young man in the US during WWII is a German spy:
“I suggested word games, therefore, and we played a few harmless ones, and then by easy stages we got to free association. […] I said “table” and he said “bed”; I said “DiMaggio” and he said “homerun”; I said “G.I.” and he said “Joe”; I said “clarinet” and he said “Benny Goodman.” It went on like that for quite a while, with me slowly getting more complicated by delicate little stages.
Finally at 4:45 p.m. I said “terror of flight” and he said “gloom of the grave” and I gave an agreed-upon signal and a fellow sitting at a desk at the other end of the room stood up, walked over, collared the guy and took off.”
He then explains how he knew the guy was a spy:
“Well, damn it, gentlemen, no loyal, true-blue American knows the words of the first stanza of our glorious national anthem, and they’ve never even heard of the third stanza (except for me, of course, since I know everything). In any case, the third stanza is chauvinist and bloody-minded and it was practically read out of the anthem during the great peace-loving days of World War II.
It’s just that the Germans are so thorough they carefully taught their agents all four verses of the anthem and made sure they had them down letter-perfect—and that was the dead giveaway.”
Gawd I hate mandatory Group Rah Rah. Hate it. I know humans are tribal animals who generally need their enforced rituals, but I have always been the grumpy skeptic.
GW @ 2 – UGH I did not know that.
It seems there’s some dispute as to the meaning:
In general I’ve noticed that political conservatives tend to push the argument that it refers to something other than formerly-enslaved Africans, such as (as your quote says) an insulting jab at the British Army as a whole. This interpretation isn’t necessarily wrong, of course, but the fact that I always encounter it speciifically from political conservatives does make me allergic to it.
At least according to this, Francis Scott Key himself got whupped by a bunch of Black soldiers — former slaves of American citizens, who had now run away and were fighting for the Brits — during the War of 1812. I have no idea if there’s a reliable source for this assertion, but if so, it makes it pretty likely that he’s referring to such people when he says “slave” in the poem.
I always thought what made such ritual meaningful was that it wasn’t compulsory, save through sheer force of expectation. Like, that’s what gives the scenes in movies where our group of plucky heroes tentatively begins to sing some tune, whether a national anthem or just a silly nursery rhyme, and soon gather strength from it reflected in increasing volume and confidence, their emotional impact and resonance. Take any of those scenes, make the singing compulsory, and you completely cripple their significance and humanity.
As with the problematic part of the American Theme Song, so with Australia’s. Written by a Scots immigrant some 24 years before Australia became a unified nation, it only became our national anthem in 1984. These verses were stricken from the song at that time.
When gallant Cook from Albion sailed,
To trace wide oceans o’er;
True British courage bore him on,
Til he landed on our shore;
Then here he raised Old England’s flag,
The standard of the brave;
“With all her faults we love her still”
“Britannia rules the wave.”
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair.
While other nations of the globe
Behold us from afar,
We’ll rise to high renown and shine
Like our glorious southern star;
From English soil and Fatherland,
Scotia and Erin fair,
Let all combine with heart and hand
To Advance Australia fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair.
Should foreign foe e’er sight our coast,
Or dare a foot to land,
We’ll rouse to arms like sires of yore,
To guard our native strand;
Britannia then shall surely know,
Though oceans roll between,
Her sons in fair Australia’s land
Still keep their courage green.
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair
“Star Spangled Banner Protection Act” – from what threat does it need protection?
Key was was too damned impressed with Prinny’s Congrieve rockets IMHO… Those things (not far removed from the ones Hamas uses) were at least as dangerous (and probably more) to the users as they were to their targets.
#12
With the low tide, the fleet and the fort were too far apart to do more than lob maximum range shots in the general direction of each other. The rockets were launched from small boats that rowed in closer, but they were so inaccurate as to make no difference. I saw somewhere that almost the only casualties of that bombardment were men on one of the boats that caught fire and blew up.
Years back I attended an Oakland As’ game. The anthem was played, and I did indeed stand and sing. I was looked at as if I were mad, received a complement from a neighbor. But the crowd as a whole ignored the din and went on chatting and drinking beer.
It is my understanding that a lot of Major League baseball parks now play “God Bless America” instead of “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” at the traditional 7th Inning Stretch. I read of someone at a game who left the stands, perhaps to get a bite to eat or use the restroom, and was confronted by a guard, who told him he was supposed to remain at his seat and pay proper respect to “God Bless America”.
It’s bad enough playing the anthem, but TWO patriotic songs, especially with enforced “respect”, is too much.
I have never been to a ball game where they didn’t play the anthem. I don’t go to ball games much (I dislike them, and use them as an occasion for photography, without having any clue what’s going on in the game). The audience stands respectfully, puts their hands on their hearts, and listens. I stand because they insist (I have no desire to be forced upward by a guard), but put my hands behind my back, which earns me stares and glares, but that’s sticks and stones territory.
I have never been to a ball game outside the Midwest, except one in Kentucky. I presume that could be the reason the anthem is always played. The saying that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels fits well here.
I haven’t been to a ball game without an anthem, either. I don’t think they exist; not professional games, anyway. I did go to one Minor League (professional) game a couple of years ago; I deliberately timed things so I wasn’t in my seat yet when the anthem was played, so I don’t know what people did. I was there for the playing of “God Bless America” at the 7th Inning Stretch, but it was pretty low-key. I didn’t stand, but some other people did.
Here’s a short history of the anthem at baseball games. Shorter version: it started sporadically at the end of WWI, but didn’t become a regular feature until WWII. And even then, it wasn’t universal until the Vietnam War, in reaction to the protesters. La plus ça change, and all.
I started going to ballgames in the late sixties, so I’ve always thought of it as a longstanding tradition.
So it really began as the United States was stepping into its new role as Imperial Hegemon?
Makes sense I guess.
Those lyrics are shocking at first glance. As the Wikipedia article Ophelia cites says, it could refer to people pressed into service. Poetically I think that fits the best, as the line would be about mercenaries and those forced to fight, so two groups fighting for reasons other than believing their cause is just.
But even if it’s the worst case of being about American slaves fighting for the British, this would still be about enemy soldiers, not slaves in general. There were freed Black people in America, and they’re not being condemned here, but rather it’s a pox on everyone fighting for the British. But it still sounds terrible. You’re never going to be thrilled by anyone fighting against your country, but when it’s a group that’s been so wronged by your country then maybe you should save the condemnations for others.
In general the Star Spangled Banner is not a great song, and I’d love to see it replaced. It’s hard to sing, it sounds kind of clunky, it focuses on war and bombs…a lot not to like. As for the passage in question, regardless of who exactly it refers to, celebrating putting people in graves is not a good look (even in a verse nobody ever sings because we never go past the first one).
Still, I stand and sing for the national anthem because I see it as standing for the country in the sense that we should all be in this together, working to make things better for everyone. Freedom and bravery are good, right? Rockets and bombs…yay, fireworks (lol)! A flag not falling in the face of attack? Resilience is good! I don’t think people see it as a war song. It’s a unity ritual. But, yeah, a better anthem would be nice.