Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
A Canadian’s Perspective on the Anthem
While Donald Trump, Roger Goodell, and LeBron James bicker about the US national anthem, let me give you a Canadian conservative’s take on “The Star Spangled Banner.”
On September 11, 2001, I was working in Ottawa as Communications Director to the then Leader of the Opposition. The comms shop had a bank of TVs going that morning and when the first plane hit, we all gathered around. When the second plane came into view, heading for the towers, we all knew what it was and we also knew that there would be a taxing few days ahead as we prepared for the crush of media demands for comment, analysis, reaction, and interviews as well as the Parliamentary demands for questions, answers, motions, and statements.
With typical Canadian caution, the Liberal government of the day moved slowly to react and offer condolences and support to our American neighbours. We in the Opposition waited until the Prime Minister spoke before issuing our statements. In the days and weeks that followed, the Liberals focused on the need to identify and address “root causes” while we conservatives immediately understood that it was radical Islam and jihadist hatred behind everything.
After a few days, the government organized a memorial ceremony of sorts on Parliament Hill, with bands, speeches, flags, and the trappings of a solemn occasion. There was no mention of God, of course, since that would offend some people and Canadians, especially when the Liberals are in power, would never want to do that.
Towards the end of the event, we sang “O Canada!” It was a typical hockey rink style rendition, with the several thousand people in the audience mumbling along in more or less unity. And then, the person at the mike sang, “O say, can you see…” and Parliament Hill was transformed.
Every person there sang. Every word. With meaning and emotion. It was electrifying. Thousands of Canadians singing the American national anthem, with meaning, understanding, sympathy and fervour.
Some time later, driving home in the dusk, the magnitude of it all hit me. Sobbing openly, I pulled to the side of the road until my eyes dried up a bit and I could actually see where I was going. Again that evening, when I called my wife to tell her about what had happened (she was still back home in Edmonton) I cried again. And every time I heard the anthem for months afterwards I choked up.
Even today, more than a decade and a half on, when a particularly good rendition starts a football game, or a stock car race on TV, I struggle to maintain a stoic, calm, Canadian exterior. I sometimes turn the sound off so I can avoid another crying jag.
Your anthem is stirring. It reflects the greatness of the USA, inspired during times of peril. It recalls the struggles and sacrifice that gave birth to America. It should be sung with gratitude, emotion and reflection. You are not a perfect nation, but you have a perfect national anthem.
Published in General
I like the Battle Hymn too. It was sung at the special church service at Saint Paul’s Cathedral after the 2001 terrorist attacks. That said, at the same service, the Brits also sang our national anthem, and it was beautiful.
I once watched an old (1950’s) series of Sherlock Holmes on Netflix. In one episode, a baby was left at his door. Holmes and Watson attempted to sing the baby to sleep with the refrain from “Rule Britannia”. What a hoot.
Thank you for posting that awesome story here, Doug. I really appreciate it.
This post made me cry. I guess we have to hear what it means from other countries, because we no longer value its meaning. I got all choked up because you reminded me where I was that day (Boston), the flight routes from Maine to Canada (one of the routes the hijackers took) closed, and the days that followed, when our political parties in unity, stood on the steps of the US Capitol and sang God Bless America. Blood drives, endless weeks of hauling debris and body parts out of rubble – and here we are – what did we learn? Thank you for your post and reminder.
I guess Dixie‘s right out.
You probably know this, but the reason James McPherson called his book “Battle Cry of Freedom” and why the movie Lincoln opens with that song is because both sides sang it around the evening campfires. :)
Here is the Confederate version.
Here is the Union version.
Duplicate post….
Have you seen the actual flag that inspired Francis Scott Key? It’s at the Smithsonian. That battle must surely have been terrifying if he had to ask, “Oh say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”
Thanks Doug; for 8 decades the SSB has always thrilled me too, sometimes to tears.
Fr. George Rutler <stmichaelnyc@gmail.com> excellent history of the SSB:
The current mania for tearing down statues and stifling free speech by cultural
ingénues ignorant of history and logic, has reached a stellar absurdity in demands to
censure “The Star Spangled Banner” on lame claims that it is racist. If ignorance is
bliss, then those who indulge their revisionism, must be in Nirvana.
Francis Scott Key penned the words in 1814, later set to an English song “To
Anacreon in Heaven,” a tune that is a challenge to singers, as even
Renéee Fleming confessed after performing it at the 2014 Super Bowl. It is often
mutilated by rock stars calling attention to themselves by “interpreting” it. Key
wrote the words after watching 19 British ships fire more than 1,500 cannon
balls, mortar shells and rockets on Baltimore. Key was a slave-owner, which
was, sadly, not in contradiction to common practice. But he ordered the
manumission of his slaves, and in 1820 he embarked on a seven-year effort
pleading before the Supreme Court for the liberation of 300 African slaves captured
off the ship “Antelope” along the Florida coast. He also worked with John Quincy
Adams in the “Amistad” case to free 53 slaves.
Key’s poem “The Defence of Fort McHenry” which, re-named “The
Star-Spangled Banner,” became the national anthem in 1931, was based on verses he
composed in 1805 to celebrate the victory over the Muslim slave -trading pirates on
the Barbary coast, (“the shores of Tripoli,”). “And pale beam’d the Crescent, its
splendor obscured / By the Light of the star-spangled flag of our nation….And the
turban’d heads bow’d to the terrible glare…” -John Langdon, was a Founding Father
who, as first President pro tempore of the Senate, administered the vice-presidential
oath of office to John Adams. In 1805 as governor of New
Hampshire, he set aside a day in thanksgiving “for the termination of our
contest with one of the African powers; the liberation of our fellow-citizens from
bondage…”
Islam, which means “submission,” has never had abolitionists like the Christians
Bartolomé de las Casas and William Wilberforce. Muhammed was a slave
trader, and the Qur’an devotes five times as much space to regulating labor
slavery and sex slavery as it does to prayer. Nearly 200 million slaves, white and
black, were sold by Muslim traders over fourteen centuries, and
almost all the Africans sold to European traders for export to America were
enslaved by Muslims. Muslim slavers even raided Ireland in 1631. So many
Eastern Europeans were enslaved that the word “slave” itself comes from “Slav.”
While lip service is given to abolition in Islamic lands, slavery today is blatant in
Sudan, Niger and Mauritania and was not abolished in Saudi Arabia and Yemen until
1962 (under Western pressure). Where is the indignation of protestors here?
If revisionists would burlesque the past and mute the voice of reason, they should
first recognize that the value of life is secured best by the standard of the Cross and
not the Crescent.
No such thing as public land in Australia. It all belongs to the Crown. So, yes… criminal. And it’s not like sheep are native, so it belonged to somebody.
And yet…
a) The troopers are acting on behalf of a squatter, who has no legal claim to the land they’re on.
b) The troopers put the onus on the swagman to prove his innocence, rather than putting the onus on the squatter to prove the swagman’s guilt.
The swagman wagers that he can’t possibly get a fair hearing, so he goes full Thelma & Louise.
I didn’t say that it’s a great legal example. Just that the content’s why it’s not the national anthem of Australia.
Kinda like when New Jersey wanted to make Born to Run the state song. Until someone read the lyrics and realized it’s about wanting to leave New Jersey…
@rocketsurgeon
In the light of the statements above, what is the attraction of Islam to the black community? I have a feeling that there has been a great misinformation campaign.
Wonderful post. Thank you Doug.
I’m currently reading a bio of Robert The Bruce, who for three decades battled the first three King Edwards for Scottish independence rather than submit to rule from afar.
Reading these lyrics I thought that they must have been written by a Scot. Sure enough, a quick check on Wikipedia shows it was written at the height of the Scottish Enlightenment with the aim of forging a British identity.
Rule, Britannia!” is a British patriotic song, originating from the poem “Rule, Britannia” by James Thomsonand set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740.
Thomson was a Scottish poet and playwright, who spent most of his adult life in England and hoped to make his fortune at Court. He had an interest in helping foster a British identity, including and transcending the older English, Irish, Welsh and Scottish identities.
We’d like to go for a walk.
Thanks Doug. I appreciate the personal history and the support.