Nancy Flanagan was a music teacher for many years. After teaching and singing the National Anthem thousands of times, she has come to the conclusion that we need a different one.
She says that the National Anthem is a disgrace.
The tune is an old British drinking song.
The lyrics are archaic and almost impossible to remember.
The message is warlike and not reflective of our democratic values.
That’s just a few of her reasons.
She suggests some other songs that would be more appropriate and easier to remember and to sing.
She writes:
I taught and performed the national anthem every year I was in the classroom. At first, I just taught the notes and rhythms, but stressed the importance of playing it well. My personal preference is a straightforward instrumental version, played at a rapid clip. The longer the song drags out, the more restless the crowd. The meaning shifts from a desire to appreciate our common values to a distraction from whatever it is the audience came for.
Later, I turned learning the national anthem into a humanities lesson, studying the drawbacks to our current anthem and exploring other options to the land of the free and the home of the brave. There are lots of picture books that present Francis Scott Key as noble patriotic hero, quill in hand as the battle rages in Baltimore Harbor, but his backstory as a slave holder from a wealthy American family added complexity and honesty to a classroom discussion with the mostly white students I was teaching.
I polled my students—what could replace the Star-Spangled Banner? It’s a great lesson for music teachers, K-12, vocal and instrumental—but also those who teach literature and civics. You can analyze the musical elements as well as the lyrics and cultural genesis of any number of potential anthems.
What do you think?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How about the William Tell overture, that would have everyone prancing in the aisles. I guess that most national anthems are pretentious, clunky and and overly grandiose.
What are the words to that again?😀
Lyrics:
The Lone Ranger!
(soloist: “Hiyo, Silver!”; percussionists clash trash can lids)
A fiery horse with the speed of light
A could of dust
And a hearty “Hiyo, Silver”
The Lone Ranger!
(soloist: “Hiyo, Silver, away!”)
With his faithful Indian companion, Tonto
The daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains
Led the fight for law and order in the early West
Return with us now for those thrilling days of yesteryear
The Lone Ranger rides again!
Hear, hear!
They’d have to change the lyrics so that the people of Alaska and Hawaii (and hopefully soon Puerto Rico) don’t feel disenfranchised!
When I was a kid in the 1970s, we sang an obnoxious and inappropriate version of this song that included shooting people because “this land is my land, and only my land”. I have no idea who came up with that, but probably made the rounds in most elementary schools and summer camps across the country.
Naw, changing a poem is a sin.
As a music teacher [retired] I totally agree. We don’t need a song that is that hard to sing nor one that glorifies war. ‘And the rocket’s red glare. The bombs bursting in air.” Ugh.
National Anthem
Oh, say! can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming;
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:
Oh, say! does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
I’d say, “America the Beautiful”.
O beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
Why isn’t this song the U.S. national anthem?
The song was a contender for the U.S. national anthem, along with “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and “The Star Spangle Banner”. In 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a law that made the “Star Spangled Banner” our national anthem, and that upset many Americans. The effort to change our national anthem has continued on and off since then, with supporters of “America the Beautiful” contending that it more accurately reflects the principles of our country. (They also add that it’s a lot easier to sing!)
I just listened to a U-tube video in which a speaker brought up, in jest, the idea that if the American national anthem brings up ‘rockets’ that NASA should say it infers more funding for their rockets.
Sounds good to me.
America the beautiful is also a good idea but Guthrie’s song has a more “American” sound to it.
As nice as “America the Beautiful” is, there’s a risk (likelihood?) that some atheists might object to its invocation of God.
I doubt it. Why would atheists want to change poems or any work of art? They do visit and admire churches.
The Hungarian anthem was not changed under Communism, though its very first word is God and it’s basically a prayer.
Máté Wierdl: Our money has “IN GOD WE TRUST”. So far, I don’t know of anyone who rejected U.S. money because of what was written on it.
Anticipating just that scenario when the Harriet Tubman $20 bill happens.
Good idea. I finally would understand what the anthem is about.
And some countries have anthems without lyrics. I’d be for that too.
There is also a version with lyrics, could be played either way. But not as easy to sings as Woody’s above.
http://www.providencesingers.org/Concerts06/Season13-14/Apr14Copland.php
I think it might be interesting to ask people what they actually think about while saying the Pledge of Allegiance or listening to or singing the national anthem. Are they just mouthing the words and not feeling anything in performing the ritual? If so, it’s a dead ritual and no longer holds the symbolic meaning. I’ve said the Pledge of Allegiance so many times in school. I have to think about what it is I am actually saying and why. And is it important that I say it everyday in school? Am I just doing it because “they” tell me to and if so, why? What does it mean to me? Am I pledging to an idea or something that really doesn’t exist?Why are we performing these rituals and do they have meaning to us anymore? Did they ever have meaning to us or were they just something we did to go along?
America the Beautiful
Either The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” or John Lennon’s “Gimme Some Truth.” I’m somewhat kidding, but no more than half-.
William Billings, an early American Composer,(https://www.songhall.org/profile/William_Billings) Wrote songs you could sing. Those of us who sing Sacred Harp music are very familiar with many of his tunes,, most notably a beautiful choral piece called Africa, which is widely sung among those who favor the Denson Book, a descendant of the Sacred Harp, by B.F. White, first published in 1844.
One of Billings’ tunes, Chester, was a celebration of how God helped the unshaven boys of the colonies whip up on Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne at Saratoga. It was sung as an anthem for a generation or so, but its specific reference to Saratoga made it sort of go away. I wrote an anthem based on its tune one time, but I cannot get anyone to sing it.
So goes the problem. We do not sing in groups nowadays. There will be no common song arise from modern America because we listen as our participation in song. Thanks be to modern technology, that only allows the best to perform.
99 Bottles of Beer?😀
Actually, I love “Chester.” We used to play it in high school band & I still remember it.
‘Chester’ is a wonderful tune, and one of the earliest through-composed (not borrowed, like ‘Anacreaon’) by an early American. Unfortunately, the words are:
Let tyrants shake their iron rods.
And Slavery clank her galling chains.
We fear them not, we trust in God.
New England’s God forever reigns.
Historically relevant. But not national anthem material. Now–the tune of Chester, with new words? There’s a thought.
Yes! Chester with new lyrics would be perfect.
I agree – I’d vote for Chester w/new words. Since the current national anthem is already a recycled melody (w/the original lyric even less appropriate), there’s firm precedent.
OH! Another shape note singer! This is one of the things I’ve missed most in the past pandemic year without group singing. Do you bring your version to local singings? At many of the ones I attend people will bring copies of tunes they’ve devised so we can try them out. And several groups this year have done Zoom singings or ones where you can add your voice to a recording and keep passing it along.
I agree with you, though–I grew up in a small town where people would get together to go caroling, or sing in various community groups. No one cared if you were “good” or not, it was all for the joy of singing. I was happy to see people singing along to sea chanties on TicToc . . . maybe group singing will make a comeback?
This Land is Your Land! Inspirational and inclusive
I agree!
Just yesterday, I saw this video, which makes the compelling argument that this land is stolen land. Were he alive, Woody Guthrie would likely agree, incorporate the verse and accompany on guitar.
Guthrie lived in one of Fred Trump’s apartment buildings and wrote this song in response to the conditions there. The acorn does not fall far from the tree.
https://theconversation.com/woody-guthrie-old-man-trump-and-a-real-estate-empires-racist-foundations-53026
One way to understand how odious the roots of the anthem are, as Nancy makes clear, check out this version of what it was based on (lyrics can be found in Wikipedia under The Anacreontic Song) :
The Ameritrade lyric fits the melody better musically.
The American lyric fits the melody better musically.
“Ameritrade” was fine as an adjective, to be honest …
I think we have a national anthem and we really don’t need to find a yet another thing to fight about.
I agree that right now may not be the best time to address this issue. (“They took away our President; now they’re trying to take away our national anthem! This is proof they hate America!”)
Performed in Washington DC in 2009. If you watch closely, you will see Obama in the audience.
Funny to see a 12 years younger Bruce Springsteen after watching him at almost the same spot singing “Land of Hope and Dreams” on Wednesday!
Now there’s a suggestion for a national anthem: Bruce!
Or, by federal law, all park signs that say, “park is closed from dusk till dawn”, need to be changed to, “park is closed from twilight’s last gleaming till donzerly light.
Ted, belly laugh!
Who’s Donzerly?😀
Backup shortstop for the ’69 Mets.
Donzerly is the word that comes out from young children who have no idea what the lyrics mean.
Donzerly means “dawn’s early”
One of the best children’s authors ever, Beverly Cleary, has a story where the incomparable Ramona (the pest) thinks it is dawnzer lee light, which leads to her asking her family to turn on the “dawnzer” (which she thinks is a lamp that gives off “lee” light).
The question was a joke! Just a joke! Kidding! 🥸
(Apparently it failed miserably. Oh well, they can’t all be hits. 🤪)
I am a long time fan of Woody Guthrie and folk music in general. This Land Is Your Land, Guthrie’s answer to what he saw as the jingoism of Berlin’s God Bless America, has always been my choice for a new national anthem, especially when the often-skipped verses about private property and the ravages of capitalism are included.
As I went walking I saw a sign there,
And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing.
That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
However, those of us who love the song need to understand how it is heard by man Native Americans: as an anthem of settler colonialism. This land is OUR land, they say, not yours and mine. To be clear, this is a perspective I had never considered until the inauguration when many Natives expressed their dismay that Jennifer Lopez would choose to sing it. For me the song was always about the inherent value and equality of all people no matter who they were or where they came from, anti-capitalist at heart.
I doubt Guthrie meant or believed that Indian land belonged to all of us. He grew up in “Indian country” and certainly knew their catastrophic history. In the decades after the Depression he might have written a different song. But the song, as written, says to many Native Americans that the theft of their land was entirely acceptable to white Americans. That makes it an inappropriate national anthem, I’m sorry to admit.
That’s a good point.
For all its flaws, the Star Spangled Banner (as far as I know) doesn’t offend anyone. Except maybe it can be seen as pro-war, but it’s really about the flag itself more than anything else. I hate that the right wing has claimed the flag, when it is the rest of us who stand up for the ideas behind the flag.
Read the blog. The Star-Spangled Banner is plenty offensive.
You are right, the unsung versus are offensive, but does that count as being our National Anthem if no one ever sings them as part of the National Anthem or knows what they are?
There are also offensive verses in America the Beautiful that no one sings. Among them: “O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!”
That’s elevating the European invasion of America!
I was just evaluating the words that were sung when I thought the Star Spangled Banner – while a horror to sing – was not particularly offensive as an anthem. It seems more about “the flag” than the country. And once songs are about “the country”, the issue of how our country came about with Europeans displacing Native Americans can be problematic.
But I love America the Beautiful and I love This Land is Your Land, and I like most of the other suggestions, too.
My neighbor’s daughter composed a new national anthem this summer. Mary Gatchell’s – “America, We Rise!” https://youtu.be/JBrZMewKfY4
AMEN!!! I have been saying this for years for many of the same reasons.
Also, it is difficult to sing for the average person, an octave and a half.
MY suggestion for replacement:
America the Beautiful
It is only an octave.
It talks of the beauty of our country, not the warlike text she talks about.
The words were written by an American
The music was written by and American
It is a beautiful song.
Yes, The British drinking song “To Anacreon from Heaven: is indeed a disgrace.
I applaud in the strongest terms her view and HOPE she succeeds. An uphill battle probably but one that NEEDS to be fought and won. Our anthem is heard round the world and people judge us by it besides the insidious message it gives to our children, war is the thing in which we most pay our most attention. .
Hi, Gordon. We agree on America the Beautiful.
However, after reading many comments, I now would add that singing, “God shed his grace on thee” probably would start another war. [I”m thinking of one particular commenter on this blog. Won’t say who.]
In 1893, at the age of 33, Katharine Lee Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, wrote the lyrics. The music was composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey. The two never met.
Maybe the line could be changed to “Dog shed his fur on thee” so as not to offend anyone.
A professor emeritus of music at the University of Michigan wrote an article for the Music Educators Journal saying a lot of the same things. He also suggested “America the Beautiful” as a replacement.
The link is behind a paywall, but perhaps you have a login through NYU or perhaps a member of the National Association for Music Education is reading this post and would like to read it.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0027432120976049
Along with decades of performing it myself, I taught the National Anthem for years to my K-5 classes. For the reasons outlined above and also for the fact that it requires a pretty extensive range as well as the navigation of several intervalic skips and leaps that are challenging for young voices, it is a terrible song for children from a pedagogical standpoint.
The story has been sensationalized and although what it has become puts a tear in the eye as the underdogs defeated the evil empire (“gave proof through the night that our flag was still there”), it is not without controversy as later verses allude to slavery. I have tried in many ways to present it to students with the story in tact from varying sources but never in its entirety and always only verse 1. If anything, the history of the War of 1812 is a most notable and worthy connection. It’s akin to the American equivalent of “let her go, she’s just not into you” to England.
It certainly has two of the longest questions in a song for its opening lyrics and the text is somewhat choppy for the musical phrasing. Key was no songwriting lyricist although the tune has its good points: “Anacreon in Heaven” did not have the sharp 4 in the second phrase of the melody, so the inclusion of said change in the SSB to set up an abrupt and tight little secondary dominant is clever and melodically pleasing. Not sure if Key had made this modification himself or if it became so through word of mouth as the original song was passed on orally across an ocean and many years. Other than that little gem of a songwriting tool, it is a clunky-phrased song certainly befit for the smashing of pints in a pub, but as a grand and solemn anthem, I would have preferred “America, the Beautiful.” Carmen Dragon’s arrangement of it is by far the best I’ve ever performed as both an instrumentalist and a singer, and I always get goosebumps at the swooping phrases and atmospheric tension Dragon evokes in his arrangement. (His son is Daryl Dragon, the Captain from The Captain and Tenille fame.)
As far as the many modern versions of the SSB, for over a century there were rules in place outlining the strict adherence to the simple triple meter and lack of embellishment that seemed to have fallen by the wayside given the arrangement that the President’s Own performed at the recent inauguration with Lady Gaga performing the vocal. If the top military band in these United States is breaking those rules, then it seems certain that they do not stand anymore. We as musicians and music teachers have always followed these rules as they were ingrained in our heads as students. Times certainly have changed. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if the anthem changed, as well.
Thanks for getting in the musical theory weeds with me. I left a lot of the melodic alterations discussion out of my blog–but the words weren’t set to the tune in Key’s day. They just happened to fit ‘Anacreon’–sort of–and it stuck.
Also–Daryl Dragon is, alas, not with us any more.
At first I thought you had made a mistake and were referring to the Australian anthem! We have just been having the same discussion (and the same problems):
https://www.theage.com.au/culture/music/tired-insipid-unsexy-why-a-word-change-won-t-save-our-national-anthem-20210115-p56ubq.html
Also, tomorrow (our time) is what is officially known as “Australia Day” but is starting to also be referred to as “Invasion Day” (more appropriate).
I like this Dolly Parton song Nancy linked to.
First, Dolly is a true philanthropist, giving away books to children across the country. Second, its lack of militarism and Dolly’s feminism; third, those on the right would be hard pressed to find it objectionable, because it’s Dolly and the words red, white and blue are seen as patriotic, and fourth it incorporates bars from the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning and America the Beuatiful towards the end.
For decades, I worked with many new immigrant and the adults often asked me why “God Bless America” is not our national anthem instead of the Star Spangled Banner, which they said they struggled to both understand and sing.. I think I’d prefer that song, too, though it would probably be problematic for atheists.
America the beautiful or This land is your land are perfect, imo. But don’t let soul musicians ever sing them (see Ray Charles’ rendition in the article). They just don’t like any tune as they are and they have to massage them until they become unrecongizable.
As for the current anthem, both Gaga’s or Whitney’s renditions are great.
I think BB Kings “The Thrill is gone” would be good as a national anthem.
Or maybe Muddy Waters “Hoochie Coochie Man”
Or maybe George Thoroughgood’s OneBourbon, one scotch onebeer
Or maybe Robert Johnson’s Cross Road blues
Imagine them playing Hoochie Coochie Man at the Olympics for the medal ceremony.
Brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.
SomeDAM Poet; Too bad Hoochie Coochie Charo is getting older. She’d be the perfect singer. Why have Jennifer Lopez when Charo could ‘shake her stuff’? [All of us women could ‘shake our maracas’ and join in the fun.]
I may be crucified, since Iive in Memphis, but I say no to the BB King song.
How about another King of Memphis?
If you say no to him, I will report you myself.
Or this one would prolly be better
A approve that guy.
Those are exactly my choices!
I like “This Land Is Your Land” and “America the Beautiful,” too, but my personal favorite is “The New Colossus,” also known as “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor,” the song that is based on the poem by Emma Lazarus which is on the Statue of Liberty and was set to music by Irving Berlin. It’s not what white nationalists would want, but I think it does accurately reflect who we really are and it’s very moving. Here is a children’s choir performing it:
Reteach 4 America; What a beautiful choir!!
………………..
Berlin Irving
Miss Liberty (1949)
Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor
[“Words by Emma Lazarus:The New Colossus, Music by Irving Berlin”.]
Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore
Send these the homeless tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore
Send these the homeless tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
The poem always moves me to tears. It is an invocation of the best version of ourselves as a nation.
It would cause time and space to be taken up arguing about it, and the right wing could pass it off as an attack on the second amendment and everything else…it is not worth the trouble. Very few things are as valuable to the right wing as something that is meaningless to fight for with righteous indignation.
Has no one addressed the quality of the music? No offense to Guthrie, but “This Land is Your Land” is harmonically and melodically very simple. Should not a National Anthem have a little more musical substance? Perhaps we need to commission a composer.
Good idea!
Alternatively, how about if someone writes lyrics to a compelling melody that already exists, such as Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man”? I have long thought that music should be played each time Congress meets, in order to remind our representatives they are there for the commoners in this country, not just for their donors, corporations or the rest of the 1% who have figured out they can easily pay for the power of their voice to be heard by our government officials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KxMc_tyQBo
My only concern is that it would be extremely unsingable for the common human (no pun intended). It lends itself well to brass instruments because of its melodic structure based on the harmonic series (those fingers and slides aren’t going crazy with changes), but for the voice, it would be even more challenging than the SSB. Still, it is a glorious piece of American music.
Nothing could possibly be more unsingable than the current national anthem.
It doesn’t surprise me the “melody” came from a drinking song cuz you’d have to be drunk to sing it.
Here’s another idea: How about the tune around which Copland wrote ‘Appalachian Spring’–Simple Gifts? it’s an authentic American folk tune, very singable. It’s been bent and shaped and re-shaped (Lord of the Dance is one example), but with new words, it might be dandy.
I love ‘Common Man’ but it’s not a singable tune.
In addition to a national anthem, we have a national hymn (‘God of our Fathers,’ also problematic). Maybe ‘Common Man’ is our national fanfare. While we’re at it, we could ditch ‘Hail to the Chief’–Andrew Jackson was the first president to declare it an appropriate tune to honor himself and the presidency, which ought to be reason enough to replace it.
Yeah, I also thought about the tune of simple gits—but we’d need a different text
“I love ‘Common Man’ but it’s not a singable tune.”
“The Star Spangled Banner” is regarded among singers as placing notoriously difficult vocal demands, & has challenged some well-known & usually highly capable singers. https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/celebrities-flubbed-national-anthem-star-spangled-banner-hard/story?id=16756113
So barring, say, Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2cBUJmDr8 most other melodies would be a step up! (Though it would be fun to watch fans try to sing it at ball games!😀)
I vote for sprechstimme, all the way. 🤣
Yes, Simple Gifts certainly occurred to me as well. It was commonly sung during the Clinton administration, so I taught it to my Kindergarten students then and it was not too challenging for them. They really loved it!
Although the drum sections of Fanfare for the Common Man are rather low and might not be melodic enough to easily adapt to lyrics, and even though the horns get a bit high, I’m not so sure that would be too problematic. With the right words, I think it could all gel.
The melody for Common Man is built on 4ths and 5ths, which are quite natural for brass instruments but hardly singable melodic material. This glorious fanfare certainly has the depth and emotive qualities to be used for our most poignant of ceremonies, but it would be challenging song material.
What we really need in this country is a national composer and a committee of composing musicians to handle issues such as this. We do have formidable musicians in the military bands—perhaps we start there and consult their expertise. Many are already employed as arrangers for these organizations—now we need someone to put pen to paper and give us a national song worthy of the people and their voices.
Simple gifts
As a Kindergarten teacher, I often wrote my own lyrics to music that had none. Frequently, I enlisted the help of my students in doing so, such as for Pachelbel’s Canon in D and portions of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, both of which they also acted out and performed on stage, at their Graduation and holiday shows. I’d try to do it for Fanfare for the Common Man, but today I feel inclined to use the opportunity to demonstrate that all workers are really essential…
If we could.steal “God Save the Queen” from the Brits, turn it into “My Country T’is of Thee” & make little kids across the US sing that every day in school for decades, then apparently it doesn’t have to be made in America. In that case, my vote would be for “I Wow to Thee My Country,” also from the UK:
It’s easier to take songs that are already in English, but my second choice would be the very moving national anthem of Israel, “HaTikva,” “The Hope”:
Smetana used what many say is “Hatikva” in Die Moldau during what turned out to be the Nationalist movement in music. Gorgeous!
LG,
I googled Hatikvah earlier today and the article said the melody is Smetana.
Cultural borrowings are great.
Agreed. I would very much like to research this. Die Moldau is one of my absolutely favorites. In my studies, I learned it was written to depict the beautiful river as it rolled through his country.
These cultural connections are vital to our existence. As humans, we are so much closer than many would like to admit. The United States is a microcosm of many other areas of the world, and a great deal of our issues lie in the fact that so many just don’t want to accept and work with others who are different. We have a faction of people who are raging xenophobes making every issue about who deserves what based on heritage, language, skin color, religion, etc. If only those folks understood how globally interconnected we all actually are, we could have a different country.
I love the sharing, too!
BTW, “I Vow to Thee My Country” comes from Gustav Holst, “The Planets” (Jupiter)
How about adding lyrics to something from Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony, such as this?
“Should not a National Anthem have a little more musical substance? ”
No. Complication is not necessarily substance. See all these singers who sing the anthem and we can barely recognize the tune.
Substance should not be confused with a lack of simplicity.
Maybe the real problem with the anthem is not the song but who is singing it.
Guthrie actually didnt write the melody for This Land is Your Land.
It was borrowed from the Carter Family song Lil Darlin , Pal of mine
In my opinion, the simplicity of the tune is what makes it great for an anthem.
It’s easy to sing, unlike our current anthem which is impossible to sing even if you are Enrico Caruso.
Love the Carter Family
The Carter’s are a national treasure.
I remember his death. Wonder whatever happened to Toni Tenille?
Muskrat Love would make a good national anthem
And after the last four years, an avocado would have done a better job in the White House.
LG: You are right. I have three avocados in my refrigerator and they want to express their opinions. I believe all three can speak in one voice:
………………………
Avocados: Carol, we are thrilled to be able to speak on Diane Ravitch’s site. We avocados are very intelligent but most people don’t know that.
We agree with everyone on this site who believes that we would have done a much better job in the WH than the Orange Malevolent Dictator-in-Waiting. We never scream at people. [Have you ever heard ANY avocado scream?] We never lie but we are totally aware of the Orange One who lied incessantly, especially in his last days in office.
So, if you get a chance to write in a candidate for President, please add the name “Avocado” and you’ll never be sorry.
We’ll speak about our political connections at a later date. For now, just know that we support President Biden and VP Harris. Carol has a photo of herself and Biden in the living room. We certainly wouldn’t want anyone else to be president at this time because Carol supports Biden and we know he is very intelligent and cares for people.
Have a great day and know that AVACADO should be our next president, after Biden and Harris have put in their time for 8 years. Goodbye. Don’t forget us!!!
Blessings to the avocados!
But it’ll be 12 years, not 8. Biden has said he’ll serve only one term, but Harris can still serve for two more.
Avocados can write well but they don’t spell very well.
Please write AVOCADO when telling who you want for president after Biden and Harris are finished serving their two terms.
The only problem with avocados is they do ripen to uselessness rather quickly.
LG:Avocados want to reply to this thought of ripening too quickly.
Avocados: We want everyone to know that if you put us into a refrigerator that we last longer. We still say we should be able to run for president because if one gets too soft another will take its place. We are like a continuous line of concessions…one after another.
We do not have any suggestions for a different national anthem. We don’t sing.
I’ll bet you would sing with a little lime and cilantro.
Take me home, country roads?
Of course, if we hesitate too much, the Japanese may steal it from us
Yes!! I adore that song! It was especially touching to hear on a visit to West Virginia, too, Since it is specific to that state though, the words might need to be changed. Similarly, Shenandoah especially warms my heart and really propels my patriotism, particularly the arrangement by James Erb:
That is sung across the globe, too, so I’ll see your Japanese version of Country Roads and raise you a Vietnamese Shenandoah:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_cuMuLfQwA :
John Denver wrote “Country Roads,” which is now the state song of West Virginia. John Denver (not his name at birth) lived in Colorado.
Nonetheless, it was wonderful to be in West Virginia on the second anniversary of the historic teachers’ strike of 2018 and join with hundreds of teachers who sang “Country Roads” together.
I was moved to tears!
I see no problem with mentioning West Virginia in the Anthem. The song resonates with all Americans.
Going home (from the New World Symphony) https://youtu.be/M9smSP1dq-A
Yes! That would be beautiful—except it doesn’t invoke the pomp and circumstance that most anthems often do.
Speaking of Pomp and Circumstance, there’s “Land of Hope and Glory”, the patriotic UK song to that tune by Edward Elgar (& frequently performed at The Proms):
That’s fun but not much of a national anthem. Imagine singing that at a ballgame.
I think the anthem needs to be about America, one way or another.
With poignant lyrics which reach across the aisle & the Mason-Dixon line, maybe “Ashokan Farewell,” the theme song used in Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary, could actually aid in uniting the country:
Alternatively, I wonder if John Williams or someone similar could be commissioned to write an original piece.
John Williams was one of my first choices as an American composer of a new anthem. In addition to his movie music, he wrote some beautiful stuff for the Olympics and also for an evening news program.
There was a Hollywood film many years ago about a mental institution. People of many stages of mental disability would sing that song together. It brought every viewer to tears. At least me. None of them were going home.
When I was a kid growing up in the 50s and 60s, we sang a lot of different patriotic songs, both at school and at summer camp. “This Is My Country” was one of my favorites:
Does anyone else remember singing this regularly in school as a child?
Tramp, tramp, tramp hear the feet of many children
from the mountains rivers and shores.
Kids with smiling faces
take their school room places
with their friends and neighbors once more.
Tramp, tramp tramp hear the feet of many children,
50 million ready today.
We work together, we play together,
the good American way.
(It had a catchy tune but I can’t find an example of it anywhere)
Perhaps someone can set the words of Amanda Gorman’s poem to music?
Wow! That sounds like a wonderful idea –and very timely!!
I suppose something by George M. Cohan, like “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” might be too dated and seem trite.
Sorry, I forgot to include the link:
This sounds like something musician, social activist Jon Batiste and his band, Stay Human, might be interested in doing:
It may not be appropriate as a national anthem, but for the past four years “Save the Country,” the wonderful song by Laura Nyro, has been haunting me –and it still does: