The Star Spangled Banner

Lately I have seen some graphics posted in various social media about "The Star Spangled Banner," specifically about the notion that its place as our national anthem should be reconsidered.  On Facebook I have been repeatedly urged to "like" a graphic if I think we should keep it.

I can't say I ever gave much thought to whether it should or shouldn't be the national anthem.  I am a bit of a history buff, so I always found interesting the fact that the lyric was composed by a lawyer (Francis Scott Key) held prisoner aboard a British ship in Baltimore Harbor during the War of 1812, with "bombs bursting in air" and "rockets' red glare" over Fort McHenry.

As many of my readers know, but some likely have forgotten (or never learned), the lyric was much longer (four stanzas) than what we usually hear or sing (just the first).

This past weekend was the bicentennial of Key's composition of the lyric. While there were surely some festivities in Baltimore, if there was much attention paid to the fact that "The Star Spangled Banner" is now 200 years old in the rest of the country, I missed it.

Fort McHenry

Some years ago a junior reporter (from the New York Times, if memory serves) conducted a person-on-the-street survey, asking people questions about our national anthem.  The format was multiple choice, which means the answers had to be only at what educators call "recognition level" in the minds of respondents.  In other words, it's easier to pick Francis Scott Key's name from several possible choices than it is to remember it if the question is fill-in-the-blank.

Not surprisingly, most people could do that.  But the results were much worse when they were asked during what war it was written, the occupation of the man who wrote the lyric, or what harbor the ship was in while he was being held prisoner on it and was inspired to compose.  As I recall, the War of 1812 came in last, behind several other choices, and so did Baltimore Harbor, despite the fact that one of the other choices was Omaha, which is on the Missouri River (and has another river, the Platte, to its west) but doesn't actually have a harbor. Baltimore also trailed San Francisco, but if you picked the wrong war, you probably wouldn't know San Francisco wasn't a city in 1812 and that as a city its name was Yerba Buena until the Mexican War (1840s), as a result of which it became part of the United States.

The medal on the right reminds us this was not a one-year war.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that our attachment to our national anthem might be based on nothing more than sentimentality.  Just as most people didn't seem to know it was composed during a battle in the War of 1812, I doubt many are aware it was officially adopted as our national anthem in 1931.  I shudder to think how many people never really give any thought to the meaning of the words.  The lyric is about how our flag flew over Fort McHenry during the battle and served as a symbol of this fledgling country's determination to endure and to survive what was, in essence, its second war for independence from Great Britain.

We do have a certain obsession with our flag.  As a child, not only did I have to sing the national anthem from time to time - which for a boy who (according to my sister) needed a basket to carry a tune often meant mouthing the words while others sang - but I recited the Pledge of Allegiance (to that star spangled banner) every morning in school.  I have no trouble understanding this.  Frankly, I think our national banner, spangled as it is with white stars on a blue field accompanied by 13 red and white stripes, is the best looking of all national flags.  I admit to a certain nationalistic bias, but that's what I think, just the same.

A Canadian friend
once called out
"God Bless America"
upon seeing a woman
dressed like this.

But the idea that we should replace it with another song as our anthem has been around for quite some time.  People have complained that it's too hard to sing, and even though we typically sing only the first of the four stanzas, many still have trouble remembering the words. Furthermore, in the last generation or two it has been fashionable to show a distinct lack of respect for our flag.  We all know about the controversy over the words "under God" in the Pledge, but as long as I can remember there have been people who didn't want to pledge allegiance to a flag at all.  Maybe "to the republic for which it stands," but not to the flag itself. People have insisted on making articles of clothing out of the flag, or at least wearing articles of clothing made to look like that, which is deeply frowned upon by traditionalists and is technically a violation of US law (the Flag Code), although the Supreme Court has told us violations of the Flag Code are protected by the First Amendment.  And of course the extreme version of disrespect, burning the flag, is also a form of expression protected by the First Amendment.

This kind of flag burning, a
flag retirement ceremony, is
appropriate for worn-out flags.

Yet, despite all this belittling of our flag, we continue to pledge allegiance to it and (at least try to) sing Francis Scott Key's ode to it in his lyric.  I'm convinced it's a matter of tradition.  Frankly, I even think at least a little bit of the opposition to statehood for Puerto Rico or the District of Columbia stems from the fact that people like the flag with fifty stars and don't want to see it changed.  (But, hey, if the Big Ten athletic conference can keep that name through the addition of teams - now up to fourteen! - we wouldn't really have to add more stars.)

Having thus decided that tradition and inertia account for our attachment to it, I looked about for reasons to change it - perhaps to "America the Beautiful," a popular homage to this great land that one could argue is about our nation and not about its flag, or war.  (The trouble with that song may be its repeated references to God, a drawback also to "God Bless America," sure to raise the ire of those who insist upon "freedom from religion."  Even "Hail, Columbia," which was often used as an anthem before the official adoption of "The Star Spangled Banner" in 1931, is a song about war with religious overtones and mention of God.)

Edward ("Ted") Widmer, an historian (Harvard Ph.D.), wrote an illuminating article on the subject for the online magazine Politico, in which, after the obligatory mention of the music being that of an old English drinking song rather than composed originally for our anthem, he gets to something of real substance: namely that Key was a slaveholder (and vigorously defended the "peculiar institution") and that the lyric (in the third stanza) makes reference to fugitive slaves who fought with the British in that war.

Widmer does a fine job of assembling the arguments in favor of change and seems to favor "America the Beautiful" as a replacement.  Although very much a traditionalist myself, I would not object to serious consideration of doing that.  I would, however, insist that the lyric be adopted in present form, with no mucking around to get rid of the phrase "God shed his grace on thee."  Given that we live in a time of tension between Christians and atheists, the former would surely agree with me on that, and the latter would strenuously object.  So I think "The Star Spangled Banner" is going to remain our national anthem.

One of my favorite "fun facts" about the War of 1812
is that the Battle of New Orleans, which made a
war hero and future president of Andrew Jackson,
was fought after the war was officially over.
No Twitter back then to give him the news.