Following the tried and true formula of “Should this thing happen? We found some random experts who say so,” Yahoo Entertainment has reached the conclusion that it’s time for the “Star-Spangled Banner” to be replaced as the U.S. national anthem.
The piece reads at times like a parody, with “journalist and activist” Kevin Powell arguing that it teaches kids violence at an early age and that every time the song is sung, it’s a celebration of the writer, Francis Scott Key, rather than a celebration of America. Key, who was a slaveowner, opposed abolition but also represented slaves trying to win their freedom in court, for no charge. It turns out like many historical figures, Key was a complicated man.
The third stanza of the song also features some, at best, questionable lines. “No refuge could save the hireling and slave. From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,” could be referring to slaves literally, though Snopes pointed out that Key never specified what he meant and it could be a reference to the British Navy. Only the first stanza is ever even sung, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a handful of Americans who know any of the rest of the poem.
Powell also delivers on his idea for a replacement; John Lennon’s “Imagine.” That’s right, the song that asks listeners to “imagine there’s no countries” should become the national anthem of our country. According to Powell, “Imagine” is, “the most beautiful, unifying, all-people, all-backgrounds-together kind of song you could have.” Unless, of course, your background is religious. A song that calls for “no religion too” should play well for the roughly 80% of religious people in the United States.
The calls to replace the “Star-Spangled Banner” are not serious ones, even in these unserious times of attempting to cleanse the past from civil society. In the end, this piece is mostly just a reminder that stripping the nation’s history and tradition does not have a limiting principle for some people, and many of those people are “experts” who get to advocate their positions in softball news stories.
