The Star Spangled Banner vs. America the Beautiful

Our country is divided over many things, but few are well understood. A case in point is the controversy over the National Anthem. Here you see a group of NFL players reverently kneeling rather than standing during a pre-game performance of The Star Spangled Banner. Our President has called for them to be fired and for people to boycott NFL games until this "unpatriotic" protest stops.

Quite apart from the disgraceful targeting of blacks by law enforcement in many of our cities, we are learning something that few people seem to have noticed about the National Anthem itself. The third stanza, which is seldom sung, references the black slaves who fought for the British in return for their freedom in the War of 1812. Francis Scott Keys, a slave owner himself, wrote,

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:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

I am confused by this verse because I think it is bad poetry, but I am very uncomfortable about the history that it references. Present day racism is the saddest legacy of the history of slavery in our country.

This verse is not the only reason some NFL players are kneeling rather than standing during the National Anthem; perhaps they would have reason to do it during any other alternative anthem. The President's reaction forces us to have a conversation about this, however,  and rather than be divided over a song, I would call upon the American people to consider retiring this militant and difficult-to-sing Star Spangled Banner, replacing it with "America the Beautiful" by Katherine Lee Bates.

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!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

There have been many proposals put forward for this song to become our National Anthem. It is lyrical, majestic, easy to sing, and its sentiments point to the highest values of our nation. We should all feel proud to rise to our feet to sing this song.