The Stat-Spangled Banner and the Dearth of American Patriotism

The Star-Spangled Banner and the Dearth of American Patriotism

 

The title of this essay refers to the “dearth” not the “death” of American patriotism; patriotism is far from dead in our country even if it is under deadly, unrelenting assault.

For example, in a failed effort to appear objective, Brown University historian Ted Widmer doesn’t precisely say he detests America’s  National Anthem but instead cites everything wrong about “The Star-Spangled Banner,” strictly for the purposes of historical accuracy , of course.  
 
After all, what would it look like for a renowned American historian to overly and overtly criticize his own country’s  most sacred patriotic song?
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In “Is It Time to Ditch the Star-Spangled Banner,” Widmer correctly points out some valid issues with “The Star-Spangled Banner” like its high notes that few can render satisfactorily but devotes most of his attention to the seedy background of the music.
As most people know, the lyrics of the four stanzas of America’s future National Anthem were originally written as a 4-stanza poem by Francis Scott Key describing his anxiety over watching the massive shelling of Fort McHenry by British forces on the night of Sept. 13-14, 1814 during the War of 1812.
When Key saw the American flag was still proudly flying on the 14th despite the bombardment, he wrote and published the “Defence of Fort  M’Henry,” which was eventually re-titled “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

However, historian Widmer doesn’t focus as much on Key’s lyrics as he does on the fact the music is derived from London’s “back alleys” and “drunken” ditties and he felt compelled to point out that the third stanza “considerably weakens the song’s claim to celebrate ‘the land of the free’” since Key fails to mention “the presence of [unspecified] significant numbers of African-Americans, fighting with the British in hopes of finding a personal freedom they had no chance of securing in  the United States.”
 
The relevance of that omission to Widmer’s call for ditching our National Anthem somehow eludes me since it, along with the American flag, doesn’t bear at all on the necessity of retaining “The Star-Spangled Banner.” 

However, his emphasis on that single, two-line excerpt in a thirty-two line poem as a supposed blemish combined with his overall negative tone toward our future anthem shows a clear antipathy, if not antagonism, toward the patriotic fervor of Key’s words.

Patriotism has gotten bunches of bad press over the course of the last few decades . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=39066.)