We already have what could be/should be a national anthem. It begins, "Oh 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." Or we might try, "This land is your land. This land is my land. From California to the New York islands, from the redwood forests to the Gulf stream waters, this land was made for you and me."
Or, my personal favorite, "My Country Tis of Thee..."
As for Buddhist poets and national anthems, well, Leonard Cohen did a pretty good job with "Democracy." A Canadian, son/grandson of Jewish cantors and a Buddhist practitioner wrote that moving, stirring song as well as poetry. I always urge folks to look him up on YouTube to see/hear various versions of that song which has more and more relevance with each passing day.
Garrison, I sang it as instructed. An interesting exercise before coffee. I don't think it's the "rockets' red glare" so much that keeps people from singing the anthem, but the difficulty in the music. That high note is offputing to non-singers which most people are. I do agree, however, that we need an anthem that isn't about war. I personally favor "America the Beautiful" but no one listens to me.
I will say that your line "O say, don’t you love this land you must save," will be interpreted very differently by those of us on the left and those on the right. We interpret it as the need to save the planet and our democracy. They will think we need saving from "wokeness", immigrants and transgender people. Of course, we are right and the right is wrong.
I tell everybody "you are right." Even when "I" think they are wrong. This may sound nonsensical, but I think that very few people want to hear anything else. They certainly do not want to hear anything that might be contrary to what they believe in.
After all the years of singing the National Anthem, it was fun to have new words to put to that melody, seeing in my head all the diversity of our country and singing at the breakfast table at 6:30 a.m. I'm afraid the current administration will consider this new version too "woke," because of the line "O say, don’t you love this land you must save..." because the MAGA goal is to develop and drill and turn all the protected lands into profits for rich folks. Sad.
My idea of adventures in ice cream would be Neapolitan.
As crazy as the Trump Administration is, they may deem the concept of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry combined as too all inclusive and woke and ban it altogether. Diversity in ice cream certainly poses a threat to our national interests.
Thanks, Garrison, for traveling to our corner of New England where the tradition is for each town green to be owned by the Congregational church and leased to the town in perpetuity. Here in Guilford, along the Connecticut shoreline, our town green is surrounded by Town Hall, a library, various churches and little shops, including a lovely bookshop and hardware store. On the Green itself you will find monuments to past wars, including a statue of a civil war soldier with the names of local boys who perished in that conflict inscribed on the base. The family names on that monument can still be found among the living residents of our community. No family then living in town was untouched by the tragedy of that war.
The Boston Post Road also runs through town and you can find more modern commercial amenities there, but the Walmart closed up shop a couple of years ago. Across the street from where the Walmart used to be is a popular seasonal outdoor restaurant where folks sit on cut logs and eat food cooked over an open fire. Down at the Town Dock you can get a mighty good lobster roll and watch the fishing boats come and go.
Perhaps you’ll come back to our neck of the woods someday. You’d be welcome in any of our various houses of worship, and it’s a lovely spot to browse the bookshop, enjoy a coffee, and even get some vanilla ice cream. We’d be happy to see you.
My sweetie and I. spend time around Old Lyme and we once hired a cabinetmaker from Guilford who did excellent work. Chester is a favorite spot too. I. discovered Earl Grey ice cream there.
Right on! Love the anthem, and everything you said about AI. My alma mater, the 100 year-old San Francisco Art Institute, went bankrupt recently. The two other art schools in the Bay Area are struggling. What point is there for a talented young person ever to go to art school when you can get an AI image generator for a few bucks and make any picture in any style, including styles mimicking world-famous artists? In fact, what is the point of being a talented young person anymore? We have offloaded our culture to Silicon Valley billionaires who are on a quest to replace every working person who isn't employed as a nurse or massage therapist. They're having some trouble coding for human touch and empathy, but don't worry! Infinite money and infinite cynicism can accomplish anything. They'll figure out a way.
Well in Chicago, churches aren't necessarily churches anymore. A private citizen was granted the privilege of buying a Catholuc parrish, stained glass windows n all. He did have ti go to the Vatican to complete the deal.
His plans? Pews are being removed to make space for pickle ball courts. This bldg will become a community center to 50 paid members
Well, at least it was not razed ti the ground. Shall we be grateful?
Keep your distance from unbelievers, eh? That'll probably be difficult now, as almost everybody is an unbeliever. Unbelievers because we humans know better, of course. We know how to solve the ills of the world. And we'll do it too, as soon as we get around to it.
I love the lyrics for the song…and I have to say, it is woke, if you mean that in waking is love, culture, experienced reality, people doing simple and marvelous things for joy!
Jimi Hendrix when asked what he thought of his Star Spangled Banner played at Woodstock, said, “I thought it was beautiful.” The best way to listen to his version, which I strongly suggest, is to sing the words as he plays…you begin to connect that the sounds, bombs bursting in air, are the lyrics! And the insertions are cool too, ‘Taps’ makes an appearance as reverence to death and dying.
And this is one way we can all make the pledge, take a community oath….sing the songs of a realized American dream.
Of course oaths unbroken are as rare as hen’s teeth these days…I know, oaths followed are for ‘the little people.’ But laws only matter when we hold ourselves accountable! It’s our private culture and behavior that is telling.
Donny and his team are assholes! Did they all take a secret oath to be so? To whom?
The trouble I have with this national anthem is that it is a question and not a statement. I couldn't sing your rewording, it didn't parse for me, but perhaps if someone else sings it, it may be a keeper. I personally like the 4th verse of The Star Spangled Banner, which we sang every other Wednesdday in school (the ones in between was our school's anthem.)
I love the rewritten anthem. I have always thought that America, The Beautiful would be a much better anthem, and yours is in line with that song. Thank you!
We already have what could be/should be a national anthem. It begins, "Oh 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." Or we might try, "This land is your land. This land is my land. From California to the New York islands, from the redwood forests to the Gulf stream waters, this land was made for you and me."
Or, my personal favorite, "My Country Tis of Thee..."
As for Buddhist poets and national anthems, well, Leonard Cohen did a pretty good job with "Democracy." A Canadian, son/grandson of Jewish cantors and a Buddhist practitioner wrote that moving, stirring song as well as poetry. I always urge folks to look him up on YouTube to see/hear various versions of that song which has more and more relevance with each passing day.
For now:
My country, 'tis of thee,
sweet land of liberty,
of thee I sing:
land where my fathers died,
land of the pilgrims' pride,
from every mountainside
let freedom ring!
My native country, thee,
land of the noble free,
thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
thy woods and templed hills;
my heart with rapture thrills
like that above.
No more shall tyrants here
With haughty steps appear,
And soldier bands;
No more shall tyrants tread
Above the patriot dead—
No more our blood be shed
By alien hands.
Let music swell the breeze,
and ring from all the trees
sweet freedom's song:
let mortal tongues awake,
let all that breathe partake;
let rocks their silence break,
the sound prolong.
Our fathers’ God, to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our king.
Garrison, I sang it as instructed. An interesting exercise before coffee. I don't think it's the "rockets' red glare" so much that keeps people from singing the anthem, but the difficulty in the music. That high note is offputing to non-singers which most people are. I do agree, however, that we need an anthem that isn't about war. I personally favor "America the Beautiful" but no one listens to me.
I will say that your line "O say, don’t you love this land you must save," will be interpreted very differently by those of us on the left and those on the right. We interpret it as the need to save the planet and our democracy. They will think we need saving from "wokeness", immigrants and transgender people. Of course, we are right and the right is wrong.
I tell everybody "you are right." Even when "I" think they are wrong. This may sound nonsensical, but I think that very few people want to hear anything else. They certainly do not want to hear anything that might be contrary to what they believe in.
I think that is simply where we are.
I also think we will grow out of it. Someday.
"You may be right," is one alternative, though I usually just smile.
I love what you say - this is simply where we are, and we will grow out of it.
After all the years of singing the National Anthem, it was fun to have new words to put to that melody, seeing in my head all the diversity of our country and singing at the breakfast table at 6:30 a.m. I'm afraid the current administration will consider this new version too "woke," because of the line "O say, don’t you love this land you must save..." because the MAGA goal is to develop and drill and turn all the protected lands into profits for rich folks. Sad.
My idea of adventures in ice cream would be Neapolitan.
As crazy as the Trump Administration is, they may deem the concept of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry combined as too all inclusive and woke and ban it altogether. Diversity in ice cream certainly poses a threat to our national interests.
Or an old favorite hard to find anymore: SPUMONI! Chocolate, pistachio and cherry!
You do have to be careful of all that mixing.
Thanks, Garrison, for traveling to our corner of New England where the tradition is for each town green to be owned by the Congregational church and leased to the town in perpetuity. Here in Guilford, along the Connecticut shoreline, our town green is surrounded by Town Hall, a library, various churches and little shops, including a lovely bookshop and hardware store. On the Green itself you will find monuments to past wars, including a statue of a civil war soldier with the names of local boys who perished in that conflict inscribed on the base. The family names on that monument can still be found among the living residents of our community. No family then living in town was untouched by the tragedy of that war.
The Boston Post Road also runs through town and you can find more modern commercial amenities there, but the Walmart closed up shop a couple of years ago. Across the street from where the Walmart used to be is a popular seasonal outdoor restaurant where folks sit on cut logs and eat food cooked over an open fire. Down at the Town Dock you can get a mighty good lobster roll and watch the fishing boats come and go.
Perhaps you’ll come back to our neck of the woods someday. You’d be welcome in any of our various houses of worship, and it’s a lovely spot to browse the bookshop, enjoy a coffee, and even get some vanilla ice cream. We’d be happy to see you.
My sweetie and I. spend time around Old Lyme and we once hired a cabinetmaker from Guilford who did excellent work. Chester is a favorite spot too. I. discovered Earl Grey ice cream there.
May we all love our country and stop hating one another.
I think some long-haired weirdo once said that.
Right on! Love the anthem, and everything you said about AI. My alma mater, the 100 year-old San Francisco Art Institute, went bankrupt recently. The two other art schools in the Bay Area are struggling. What point is there for a talented young person ever to go to art school when you can get an AI image generator for a few bucks and make any picture in any style, including styles mimicking world-famous artists? In fact, what is the point of being a talented young person anymore? We have offloaded our culture to Silicon Valley billionaires who are on a quest to replace every working person who isn't employed as a nurse or massage therapist. They're having some trouble coding for human touch and empathy, but don't worry! Infinite money and infinite cynicism can accomplish anything. They'll figure out a way.
Thank you for the new version of the National Anthem. It's a keeper!
I've been adding to it and we're going to sing it on the PHC shows in Bethesda and Tanglewood in a couple weeks.
Well in Chicago, churches aren't necessarily churches anymore. A private citizen was granted the privilege of buying a Catholuc parrish, stained glass windows n all. He did have ti go to the Vatican to complete the deal.
His plans? Pews are being removed to make space for pickle ball courts. This bldg will become a community center to 50 paid members
Well, at least it was not razed ti the ground. Shall we be grateful?
There are a few on the NW side that are now single family residences.
“Jim Clothes”? You mean gym clothes?
Keep your distance from unbelievers, eh? That'll probably be difficult now, as almost everybody is an unbeliever. Unbelievers because we humans know better, of course. We know how to solve the ills of the world. And we'll do it too, as soon as we get around to it.
I love the lyrics for the song…and I have to say, it is woke, if you mean that in waking is love, culture, experienced reality, people doing simple and marvelous things for joy!
Jimi Hendrix when asked what he thought of his Star Spangled Banner played at Woodstock, said, “I thought it was beautiful.” The best way to listen to his version, which I strongly suggest, is to sing the words as he plays…you begin to connect that the sounds, bombs bursting in air, are the lyrics! And the insertions are cool too, ‘Taps’ makes an appearance as reverence to death and dying.
And this is one way we can all make the pledge, take a community oath….sing the songs of a realized American dream.
Of course oaths unbroken are as rare as hen’s teeth these days…I know, oaths followed are for ‘the little people.’ But laws only matter when we hold ourselves accountable! It’s our private culture and behavior that is telling.
Donny and his team are assholes! Did they all take a secret oath to be so? To whom?
They certainly don’t sing.
I think the asshole oath was to Roy Cohn and Joseph McCarthy.
Wonderful! It's the folk process in action.
The trouble I have with this national anthem is that it is a question and not a statement. I couldn't sing your rewording, it didn't parse for me, but perhaps if someone else sings it, it may be a keeper. I personally like the 4th verse of The Star Spangled Banner, which we sang every other Wednesdday in school (the ones in between was our school's anthem.)
George Hawkins Houston TX
I love the rewritten anthem. I have always thought that America, The Beautiful would be a much better anthem, and yours is in line with that song. Thank you!
Love this new verse! Now I’m woke all over and might as well get up!