This was originally posted on a horrible site called Myspace. When Myspace underwent a redesign in Fall 2010, hundreds of insightful reader comments that had been left over the years were lost. I have since deleted my account there.
I find it incredible that more than nine years after 9/11, Major League Baseball teams still have to perform "God Bless America" during the 7th-inning stretch of all postseason games, as well as certain other games. Fans are asked to please stand and remove their caps for the song, just like the National Anthem. (Even though GBA isn't the National Anthem.) And prior to a civil-liberties lawsuit a couple of years ago, the New York Yankees' security guards famously kept fans from leaving their seats during the singing of said song. No, this isn't North Korea. Yet.
Here's my beef with "God Bless America." First of all, it is without question a patently religious song. Consider the introduction, rarely sung today except sometimes at Yankee Stadium:
While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.
"God Bless America" is intended to be sung as a prayer for the well-being of America. (Of course, not necessarily for anyone else in the world, even though a huge proportion of MLB players were not American-born.) People from other countries are amazed that the phrase "God bless America" is even a thing here in this country; I can't count the number of times a person from Europe or Asia has left a comment on a video of mine saying, "Why not God bless the world?" Yet this is the message we send out every time 50,000 baseball fans are asked to stand and sing.
Even worse, "God Bless America," since its resurgence after 9/11, has taken on a more sinister subtext: May God watch over America as we fight those godless Muslims overseas. It has a Crusade ring to it. I have to ask, given all of the other nonreligious, non-jingoistic, non-divisive, beautiful patriotic songs out there — "America the Beautiful" is my personal favorite — is GBA really the best choice, if only in the interests of not fomenting more terrorism?
To anyone who says get over it, it's just a patriotic song, one that celebrates our freedom — let us not forget the prophetic words attributed to Sinclair Lewis:
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
Yes bless America and forget about the rest of the world. They don't deserve to be blessed by "god". Even tho that phrase sounds peaceful or loving and is said with good intentions, doesn't the rest of the world deserve the same "blessing"? How about the children in Africa? How about those who where affected by the "True Loving God" and drowned in the tsunamis in Asia? Or those in Chile, they got some serious amount of love from "God" in the form of an 8.8m earthquake.
ReplyDeleteNothing bless American, everybody is an atheist so everybody should drop their hopes for well-being. They should sing "Fuck America, we are all gonna die and there will be no afterlife, get over it, and lets start the baseball game."
ReplyDeleteYou can have hope for your own well-being, without making everyone sing about one way of having hope. And I disagree with the Fuck America part. I like America. But if we have to sing another song, how about "Peace America" or "Peace the World"...or better yet, sing just one song in the 7th inning, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." As you so correctly pointed out, there is no afterlife -- this life is it, so we should not delay the joys of baseball unnecessarily. And certainly not to sing a religious song that is dangerously divisive in the globally connected 21st century.
ReplyDeleteI personally enjoy the National Anthem--with America the Beautiful being a close second--but I hate the "national anthem" feel it usually has when performed. In fact, I recently arranged a version that sounds more like a concert choir would perform it than like you'd perform it at the beginning of a baseball game, for just that reason, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" is quite possibly the most annoying song of all time. I wish I had earplugs every time I hear that song!
ReplyDeleteStory about global warming again on the news.
ReplyDeleteThe gods have the freedom to rapidly accelerate global warming because of unregulated Chinese industrialization. And they are using it.
Whereas US industrial regulation combined with automotive smog devices had contained, the shameful emmissions at the hand of Italian capital which financed this chinese growth will ultimately kill our planet.
The gods must abjectly hate the Italians:::They ruined our cultures, eliminating Old Worlds around the globe, they destroyed our societies and now they will be used to ruin the planet.
Intelligent design:::Everything the gods do has purpose. There was purpose in the Italian boot, the Scandanavian penis, the sheep of Europe and the SFBA Beast. Chinese/Asian slanted eyes is yet another. Designed to make them/some look evil, they are a warning to other races. What is occurring with enviornmental degredation is living proof.
Never forget the shameful experience we each had in 2008 when the Chinese desperately tried to clean up the envionment in Beijing.
Recall the $5 trillion Republican scam where W set up the evil Democrats to sign the credit card receipt.
Expect some portion of the $5 trillion stolen from the United States creatively went to the Catholic Church, positioned to bitterly complain they lost their affluent white parishoners for poor Latinos and this is all their doing anyways.
I always suspected there has been a skim on the US General Fund all along and I was right. And the gods are using these clone host fakes to kill Planet Earth, financing China industrialization. The puppeteer pulling the strings, ironically.
Jesus is a false god.
There is no Satan. The world around us is all the god's doing:::You have to be tested with temptation.
Christianity is a test.
Muslim misery? The gods claim they are trying to "help you". The gods control everything, choreograph all that we see, including Isreal's relationship with Palestine, an "obligation" for their money-grubbing acceptance of the Evil Empire's billions. They also control the Italians, victims of the Moorish invasion/rape of their women, positioned in charge of this false reality through Christianity.
The gods created all this to position this reality you experience today.
"Earning" is temptation. It is a lie leading people into Damnation. Any hope of the Muslim world regaining the power they once had is long since over and it will never, ever return. Their acts 0f terrorism are only hurting them in the eyes of the gods.
The gods claim they are trying to "help you", but they also stoked your pride with your regional superpower status of centuries ago, rendering their efforts today merely destructive, a very bad sign. This means the gods have major problems with your people.
Never forget:::The gods work in mysterious ways. A mortal trying to understand may envoke their wrath. You shouldn't need to.
I believe the gods relocated the Jews to another planet before the Holocaust began to give them additional time before Earth fell into the social decay Christianity and the United States is responsible for. I suspect this favor included some/many of the Native America peoples as well.
Unfortunately for Muslims you didn't have the favor necessary to be allowed such generosity. I believe it is due to your mysogyny, your belief women are inferior to the men. This does not include veiling, which is a positive for the people and helps maintain decency within your society.
Orthodoxy is always the best course of action because, as I have repeated, old is mostly good and a little evil, while new is mostly evil and a little good. This applies to Islam as well.