So as we learned earlier today, the Fighting Mennonites of Goshen College in Indiana have dumped the National Anthem at its sporting events, deeming the song too violent, and therefore not in concert with its religious beliefs. Actually, they are not called the Fighting Mennonites at all (sorry). Their sports mascot is the Maple Leaf — the most fearsome of all foliage. This is appropriate, as the Mennonite religion is dedicated to pacifism and has, throughout the centuries, perfected the fine art of fleeing. In fact, the Mennonites are so benign and peace-loving that, in the early 18th century, they were kicked out of Switzerland. You really have to be pacifistic to get bullied by the Swiss.
Goshen had not bothered with playing the National Anthem at all until last year, when they broke out an instrumental-only version at two sporting events. Then a month ago the college board of directors tasked college President Jim Brenneman with finding a new song to play prior to games — one that people could sing along to. Thank goodness Brenneman does not appear to be a country music fan, because that could have been disastrous. “Please rise as we honor America by singing ‘I’ve Got Friends in Low Places.’ “
After much soul searching and iPod listening, Brenneman came up with America the Beautiful. A plucky little song, and patriotic, although not easy to dance to. So this will become Goshen College’s new go-to tune before baseball games, etc.
Much of America was not amused.
It just takes a look at the comments section of our post this morning to get a glimpse of the controversy this has generated. (If your comment didn’t make it, it most likely got flagged for profanity, or references to sexual positions not found in nature). Many of you take it as a slap in America’s face that a college would ban the National Anthem from its campus.
It’s true, the Anthem is based on a violent event: The bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships during the War of 1812. There’s mention of rockets, bombs bursting in air, and tattered fabrics. The Mennonites say that this is all against their religious beliefs: that perhaps it would have been better if, when the British arrived, we had simply fled … just as chronicled in the film Love and Death, when it was announced that Napoleon had invaded Russia. Woody Allen, playing Boris, says he doesn’t want to fight:
MIKHAIL: “Our brother is a coward!”
BORIS: “Yes, but I’m a militant coward.”
MIKHAIL: “He has a yellow streak running down his back!”
BORIS: “No, not down … it runs across.”
Similarly, pacifism is not fashionable in the United States these days, and those eschewing The Star-Spangled Banner are just seen as lousy communists, or worse … Canadians.
But isn’t Goshen just passing on a song that, at sporting events at least, is long past its prime?
Some fun facts about The Star-Spangled Banner: Although written by Francis Scott Key in 1814, it wasn’t adopted for official use by our military until 1889, by the Navy. And it didn’t officially become our anthem until 1931, when Herbert Hoover decided we needed a pick-me-up during the Great Depression. Before 1931, songs such as Hail, Columbia and My Country, ‘Tis of Thee were more often thought of as our national anthem.
The Star-Spangled Banner was played sporadically at Major League Baseball games as early as 1897, but it didn’t become a permanent institution until World War II, when it was used by owners to deflect criticism that a boy’s game was still being played while men were dying overseas. And the tradition stuck, to the point where it’s now played before every sporting event, be it MLB, NFL, NHL, Little League, Monster Truck Rally, whatever.
We are told time and again that to fail to sing the SSB, or to not respectfully remove one’s chapeau while it’s being played, is akin to taking a Bic lighter to the American flag. And you’d better place your hand over your heart during the process, lest you be thought a feckless traitor. (Those without actual hearts, such as employees of the IRS and reality show producers, are exempt).
Now, no one loves America more than me, except perhaps Apollo Creed. But I say it may be time to put The Star-Spangled Banner out to pasture, and let another song have its turn as our National Anthem. The SSB is impossible to sing, the lyrics are hard to remember and it’s too long. Also there’s always the chance the Christina Aguilera could get her hands on it again. In the age of micro technology, The Star-Spangled Banner is a papyrus scroll in a clay jar. If I instead sing America the Beautiful or Hail, Columbia or Ain’t That America by John Mellancamp, it doesn’t mean that I love the USA any less. I’m still singing, for God’s sake. It’s just different words that mean the same thing.
Our soldiers aren’t fighting for an old poem that was set to the tune of a British drinking song (true story). They’re fighting for a much larger concept, which includes the freedom to change things if we choose. And freedom of religion. Remember that little notion? The Star-Spangled Banner was not chiseled in stone by the Founding Fathers, but scribbled in pencil by a guy who was, coincidentally, sitting out a battle. Like our Constitution, it should be a living document, not Han Solo frozen in carbonite. It should be subject to revisions now and again.
No, freedom isn’t free. But its high notes also shouldn’t be so hard to reach.
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Rick’s Cafe Americain appears on Thursdays. Contact: Rickchand@gmail.com.
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- kachlucca - Aug 27, 2011 at 7:41 AM
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I agree with shearer09. Why the national anthem at a sporting event? Let’s create a whole new industry where every sports team can pen their own anthem and let their fans sing that before the game. Yankees’ fans can sing “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy” and someone up in Boston can write a song about baked beans.
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- richm2256 - Aug 27, 2011 at 8:56 AM
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Or about kicking the Yankee’s butts.
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- jackvalant - Aug 27, 2011 at 11:03 AM
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You’re pathetic
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- maxcorkle - Aug 27, 2011 at 12:39 PM
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I’m as patriotic as they come but the Star Spangled Banner has become overplayed and it’s time to remove it from most sporting events. I’d prefer a different anthem for our country but that’s a different subject.
Rick’s already mentioned most of the reasons I detest hearing it sung at sporting events. I just think our national anthem should be reserved for special events, not at every single sporting event. It has lost its meaning being played so often.
I would not be sad in the least to see it go entirely from sporting events. There is simply no need for it. Save it for military honors, special recognitions, dedications, that sort of thing.
But for guys who are only minutes away from pounding each other on the football field, nothing is more of a “buzzkill” than this anthem. You’re all jacked up, ready to go and now, bow your head, remove your caps, and please stand while we honor America by playing this song for the bazillionth time.
Hilarious article! “…the most fearsome of all foliage.” Now THAT’S funny.
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- buffilokiller - Aug 27, 2011 at 8:14 AM
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rick your never heard LEE ANN RIMES sing the anthem???? if you did and where a vet like me you would not be saying to change the anthem to some thing else. it’s not the anthem’s fault that event’s sponsors put people up to sing it that can’t. boo the dumb a## who thinks they can sing and can’t remember the words. get on the people who put these people up for what ever the reason. i seen even NASCAR events put people up who should not be on stage let alone be singing such a moving song.
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- htokatlian - Aug 27, 2011 at 8:28 AM
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this canadian thinks your national anthem is great. keep it but when skanks, drug-laden has been rock stars, vulgar comediennes who sounds like cats meowling, etc. sing it, the national anthem is reduced to an all time low.
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- singerteacher - Aug 27, 2011 at 9:00 AM
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The US doesn’t need a new song – just new singers.
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- reab213 - Aug 27, 2011 at 9:14 AM
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It seems that many of you forget that the best part of America is FREEDOM! The SSB is an amazing song (granted it can grate when the singer is bad)- let it remain the national anthem- but there are many other great songs about our country too. I don’t think it would be un-American to start off a football game with My Country Tis of Thee, America the Beautiful or Greenwood’s God Bless the USA or even some Garth Brooks. Who cares? Let each team decide- we are a free country and thats what makes us exceptional.
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- beinglarry - Aug 27, 2011 at 12:42 PM
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How do you teach grade school kids the national anthem with these lyrics?
“If tomorrow all the things were gone,
I’d worked for all my life.
And I had to start again,
with just my children and my wife.”
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- saltydog7419 - Aug 27, 2011 at 10:11 AM
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I think “America the Beautiful” should be our anthem. Let’s get rid of the one that has the war and violence theme!
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- guypatsfan - Aug 27, 2011 at 10:24 AM
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Considering all the idiots that live in this country I’d think the theme from Team America: World Police (America, F*ck yeah!) would make an appropriate anthem.
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- piperbill - Aug 27, 2011 at 11:22 AM
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Thoughts from an old, fairly patriotic veteran: The misplaced significance associated with and the disproportionate attention paid to our National Anthem inclines me to propose an instrumental version of American The Beautiful played ONLY on those commemorative or political occasions that warrant a national musical tribute.
Sporting events? Religious celebrations? Forget it! Entirely inappropriate!
Just my two cents …
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- racers2 - Aug 27, 2011 at 12:14 PM
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This guy is crazy. We don’t need a new song. If the people singing it would stop adding stuff it, it would not be hard to sing and it would not be long unless you sang all 4 stanzas. To this day I get goose bumps and tear up when I hear it done the way it was meant to be done. I have been known for grabbing a hat off someone’s head when it is being done. This is our countrys song and requires our respect and that includes our troops both fighting and fallen. It is so sad that it has been taken out of our schools so that our children are no longer taught how to respect our country. As always just my opinion.
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- grape3vine - Aug 27, 2011 at 12:51 PM
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Another name for pacifist is CHRISTIAN. Please read the gospel of Matthew, especially the Sermon on the Mount, which is Jesus teaching us how to treat each other. Please don’t question someone’s loyalty as an American by pitting it against their Christian faith. There are a lot more ways to fight than physically. Gandhi and King knew this, and they knew it was just as dangerous as toting a gun around a battlefield. And they both paid the ultimate price, but both accomplished so much in their lives. God Bless America, and God Bless Goshen College. (but I agree with you that the Star Spangled Banner, or To Anacreon in Heaven, is entirely too hard for most people to sing and we should go with the more small-d democratic America The Beautiful.)
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- 44magpreacher - Aug 27, 2011 at 2:06 PM
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Ah, Sir,
You should really be a better student of history before you make a rather silly and somewhat demeaning statement like the Mennonites were kicked out of Switzerland for being pacifist. They were driven out due to religous persecution, my relatives, 10 generations ago were a part of that persecution and came to America in the early 1700s to get away from that perscution. I’m sure you meant no intended insult to the Mennonites, but it kinda came across that way. By the way, I am not Mennonite myself so this is not a personal thing.
I appreciate your supporting their freedom to do as they have, but you might want to brush up on your “Anabaptist” history a bit.
By the way, my mother graduated from Goshen College, by brother pastored the college church there for a while, I went to High School just downt the street at a Mennonite school, so I know a bti of the mentaltiy towards things like this. My high school changed their mascot name from the Braves to the Bruins (I think) for the same reasons.
Have a nice day.
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- 44magpreacher - Aug 27, 2011 at 2:09 PM
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BY THE WAY, WHERE IS THE SPELL CHECK ON THIS WEB SITE, I SEE I NEEDED IT
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- skipbooth - Aug 27, 2011 at 5:28 PM
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Hoover just signed the bill. Congressman J. Charles Linthicum wrote the legislation to make the Star Spangled Banner the National Anthem. It took him 12 years of lobbying to get the bill passed.
It is ture that it was composed in the heat of battle. It does not celebrate the battle but the resilence and the heroism should by a small force of defenders who endured and beat the odds.
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- philliephaninva - Aug 27, 2011 at 5:46 PM
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Don’t dump the National Anthem. Dump the people that THINK they can sing it. If we just had a brass band play before the game, that would be cool.
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- stew48 - Aug 27, 2011 at 7:44 PM
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Sat. nite here. Just heard a bunch of kids, and I do mean kids, sign the NA very well for the NASCAR race at Bristol. Listended to a young boy at a Steelers game as well. It isn’t the song, it’s notes or anything else; just of bunch of “changers” who want fame for leading the way.
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- sportsinhd - Aug 28, 2011 at 11:15 PM
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The Star Spangled Banner is an old English drinking song with new lyrics. I’d much rather have a national anthem written excluvisely by Americans. “America the Beautiful” or “My Country Tis of Thee” would be more fitting. Of course to suggest such a thing is treasonous to those who disagree.
