When I was a schoolgirl in Rockville Maryland, someone, a group of teachers I think, asked the students to decide if they wanted a new national anthem. I like new things and was enticed by the idea. We sang all sorts of patriotic songs as part of our research on the proposal. This was a DC suburb, and many kids were from military families. In the end, most of us decided that we could do better as a nation than the Star-Spangled Banner (SSB). It wasn’t fun to sing and since we’d all been irradiated by the above ground nuclear testing, the bombs bursting in air was a pointed reminder of the health effects of bombs. 

Yes, a flag is a symbol and people tend to think symbolically, but to my child’s mind, it was a limited symbol. I really gravitated towards the “wilder” songs with references to the beauty of the national landscape such as God Bless America or the collective love of country as in This Land is Your Land. The idea of a new national anthem never got much traction but let it be known, I have never enjoyed singing the Star-Spangled Banner.

The tune was from a popular drinking song and the lyric writer was a racist who wanted to send slaves back to Africa. The song itself has only been the national anthem for around 100 years and was selected because of the symbolism of the flag and its association with war. Before this, America (My Country Tis of Thee)  was the unofficial anthem. 

In my novel Lost in Waste, the residents of the dystopian wasteland are forced to sing an anthem while pressing their fingers to their forehead to show they are thinking about their country.  Most countries have a national anthem and quite a few of them are dirges or if you prefer, hymn like. Some are marches. Others are kind of violent.  This one from Bangladesh makes you want to kiss the sky. 

A bill has been introduced to mandate the singing of the SSB in Iowa classrooms.  I have a few issues with this. First of all, the bill sponsor sounds way too stuck on himself. Also, it’s going to make kids hate the SSB if they are being forced to sing it every single day. And I don’t care what country we are talking about. Most anthems are dated. They often sound much better when sung professionally.

Not to mention, there’s something confusing about forcing kids to sing something about the land of the free. The bill requires singing the entire thing at some events despite offensive lyrics. Perhaps one of the saddest things about this is that the representative pushing it is from one of the most cancer ridden areas of the state. He really should be thinking about other issues..