Jose Can You See

Taken from a cheesy joke I heard back in the day: A spanish

speaking immigrant is taken to a ballgame.  Asked how he felt about the experience, he replied that he was touched by the concern expressed by fans for his well being: they all sang, “ Jose,  Can You See”? Told you it was cheesy……

About a century after Francis Scott Key’s The Star Spangled Banner became our national anthem, I gotta ask: Can’t we do better than this for the greatest nation on earth? While Key’s lyrics are somewhat warlike, my objection is more with the music, itself.  (One of my favorites, La Marseillaise, is even more belligerent).  Key’s music is taken from an English drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven”.

Just about any singer would probably tell you that the melody is, to say the least, challenging, particularly with the high note near the end: “O’er the land of the free…”. 

A Russian immigrant named Israel Beilin (later changed to Irving Berlin) penned a song titled, “God Bless America”, which is often performed at sporting, and other, events.  Unfortunately, God is mentioned prominently (as well He should be), but in this pluralistic society, is this a no-no?  This criterion rules out  other candidates (America the Beautiful, Battle Hymn of the Republic, to name just a couple).    

Key had, at best, a mixed outlook on slavery, perhaps less so in the context of his time (much could be said about President Harry S Truman, a great president from a border state who integrated the armed forces). The song could be made considerably more tolerable if the third stanza is omitted, as has been proposed several times.  We are usually spared stanzas beyond the first, anyway, at most events.  

Much is made of separation of church and state, which is, at best, honored in the breach.  Is not our currency validated by the phrase, “In God We Trust”? Our Pledge of Allegiance to the flag (hopefully right side up) had “under God” added in the 1950’s. Why not include Him (or Her) in a national anthem?

This is a time for making some changes to our national setup, which I’ve suggested in the past (to no avail).  To wit: Abolish the Electoral College and the U.S.Senate.  Why not jettison our National Anthem, based as it is on an English drinking song which is all but impossible to vocalize competently.  Don’t worry, traditionalists, it ain’t gonna happen.