Anthemed at Point-Blank Range [View all]

[madamesilverspurs]

It’s not required by any law, but you’d never know that, seeing as how its performance has become a demanded thing. Our national anthem seems to have become the newest cheap lapel pin, its use zealously monitored by the jingoism police; not only will it be sung, it will be sung in a certain way while maintaining a specified posture, subject to the approval of those for whom symbol too often takes precedence over substance. It’s now treated like some arcane incantation, recitation of which while holding hand over heart is sufficient to show the world that you’re American enough, or else.

Since when? And says who? Seriously, I remember going to school games and events where the anthem wasn't played, and the world didn’t end. Maybe they thought it was sufficient that we began every school day with the Pledge of Allegiance (another thing committed to memory by the time we were in second grade even though we weren’t old enough to have any idea of what many of the words mean, much less any cognitive awareness of our country’s place in the world, but that’s for another discussion). And there were many public events where the anthem’s use had not become ritualized; again, the world did not end. To be sure, there are those memorable occasions wherein the presentation of that star spangled banner for which the attendant anthem is named brought me to tears; but how in the world does that impact maintain when you go to a bingo hall that requires players to stand and sing the national anthem before those games begin, or when its overly scrutinized observance turns it into a cudgel meant to shame and punish those citizens whose history does not mirror our own?

Somewhere, somehow, we’ve jettisoned our own meaning; we’ve traded being an American for being Americanized, and that’s a problem.


There’s a verse in the New Testament that advises against the use of “vain repetitions”. Maybe we can borrow that advice and return “The Star Spangled Banner” to its intended status. After all, a nation’s anthem does merit a certain honor, perhaps it’s time we give it back.




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