[Ads-l] the national anthem

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, personally, I _like_ The Anacreontic Song, even though the original
lyrics have been replaced by the words of that poem by Frank (I call
him ‘’Frank’’; we used to hang out, back in the day) Key, Defence of Fort
McHenry.

On Thu, Sep 28, 2017 at 9:57 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> > On Sep 28, 2017, at 9:45 PM, James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> > Some time ago Wilson Gray posted to the ADS-L about the irony if not the
> obscenity of having the words "the land of the free" in our national anthem.
> >
> > It turns out he was a prophet.
> >
> > Last night I attended a meeting of the Progressive Coalition---New
> Jersey District 2.  An African-American woman named Tanzie Youngblood is
> running for Congress in my district (New Jersey 2nd, the incumbent is
> Republican Frank LoBiondo).  The Coalition had something to do with Ms.
> Youngblood deciding to run for Congress, and she was invited to attend the
> meeting.  Except for her, everyone at the meeting was white.
> >
> > Someone in the meeting stated that the third stanza of the Star Spangled
> Banner ("and where is that band who valiantly swore/that the havoc of war
> and the battle's confusion/a home and a country shall leave us no
> more/their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution") was
> strongly anti-black, having to do with the demand that the British return
> all slaves who had sided with the British (if true, this is news to me).
>
>
> The full stanza is worth citing to get the context, including the last two
> lines:
>
> And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
> That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
> A home and a country, should leave us no more?
> Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
> No refuge could save the hireling and slave,
> From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave.
>
>
> Here’s some discussion:
>
>
> www.theroot.com/star-spangled-bigotry-the-hidden-racist-history-of-the-1790855893
>
> https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-08-30/historians-disagree-whether-star-spangled-banner-racist
>
> http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bs-ed-anthem-letter-20150912-story.html
>
> LH
>
>
> >  She also stated that at least some blacks dislike the Star Spangled
> Banner for this reason.
> >
> > I pointed out that it is much more relevant that Colin Kaepernick was
> protesting police brutality (a la Black Lives Matter) rather than Francis
> Scott Key, and that Trump's demand to "respect the flag" is code for
> "condone police brutality".  Ms. Youngblood nodded and smiled.
> >
> > - Jim Landau
> >
> > PS: two political tongue-ties:
> >
> > a cut-and-paste error added "meet every other Friday for drinking
> skeptically"
> >
> > a camdidate for school board, asked why a certain man was not present,
> replied, "His wife is getting married".
> >
> > _____________________________________________________________
> > Netscape.  Just the Net You Need.
> >
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>
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>

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