Aversion to Authority

I’ve always had it. In 6th grade I declared my atheism (which my choir director dismissed as mere youthful rebellion, sorry Dorothy- clear to the bone) and I stopped participating in what were called “Morning Exercises”, moment of silence, Pledge, Anthem.

Not that I was militant mind you, I stood, kneeled, and sat when everyone else did, even sang the hymns if they were particularly tuneful and Wesley was good like that.

The proximate cause of my dismissal from the circle of Zombie obedience was my habit of reading ahead while the mindless ritual was being performed. Evidently quietly turning pages was a distraction to the unity of the class. I lived (and live) in Stars Hollow, a lily white scab over the unpleasantness of those damn Portuguese (didn’t know we have a problem with Bacalhau? You ain’t from ’round here.), and so was entitled to all the privileges of my Viking heritage including pillage and the occasional berserkergang.

Instead of giving me the boot and putting an ugly demerit as a persistant troublemaker on my permanent record (after all, I would be someone else’s problem presently) I was invited to observe from outside the classroom which bothered me not at all and was far more disruptive to the ritual than my passive absention. When I reached High School age my home room teacher evidently missed the message and assigned me to lead the Pledge which I did in about a second and a half (you’d be amazed at how quick it goes when you eliminate “under God”). She invited me to report to the House Master, who told me I should see him in the morning when I arrived, which was usually around 5th period (of 7).

She signed my yearbook, our relationship couldn’t have been that bad. On the other hand so did my Spanish teacher after 6 years of “Me llamo Paco. Y tu? Como te llamas?”

I insist we were having a conversation about furry quadrupeds native to America del Sur.

La ventura va guiando nuestras cosas mejor de lo que acertáramos a desear; porque ves allí, amigo Sancho Panza, donde se descubren treinta o poco más desaforados gigantes con quien pienso hacer batalla, y quitarles a todos las vidas, con cuyos despojos comenzaremos a enriquecer: que esta es buena guerra, y es gran servicio de Dios quitar tan mala simiente de sobre la faz de la tierra.

¿Qué gigantes?

Aquellos que allí ves, de los brazos largos, que los suelen tener algunos de casi dos leguas.

Mire vuestra merced, que aquellos que allí se parecen no son gigantes, sino molinos de viento, y lo que en ellos parecen brazos son las aspas, que volteadas del viento hacen andar la piedra del molino.

Bien parece, que no estás cursado en esto de las aventuras; ellos son gigantes, y si tienes miedo quítate de ahí, y ponte en oración en el espacio que yo voy a entrar con ellos en fiera y desigual batalla.

Oh, ‘Murikan.

Destiny guides our fortunes more favorably than we could have expected. Look there, Sancho Panza, my friend, and see those thirty or so wild giants, with whom I intend to do battle and kill each and all of them, so with their stolen booty we can begin to enrich ourselves. This is noble, righteous warfare, for it is wonderfully useful to God to have such an evil race wiped from the face of the earth.

What giants?

The ones you can see over there with the huge arms, some of which are very nearly two leagues long.

Now look, your grace, what you see over there aren’t giants, but windmills, and what seems to be arms are just their sails, that go around in the wind and turn the millstone.

Obviously, you don’t know much about adventures. Those are Giants and if you fear them hide and pray while I enter into fierce and unequal battle.

See? I learned more than fencing (I think you missed a spot, do it again or Aunt Polly will cane you for sure). Did you?

Layers.

But back to Anthems and Slavery.

More Proof the U.S. National Anthem Has Always Been Tainted with Racism
by Jefferson Morley and Jon Schwarz, The Intercept
Sep. 13 2016, 1:46 p.m.

It took 117 years from the time “The Star-Spangled Banner” was written in 1814 until it was legally enshrined as the American national anthem in 1931.
…
(At)the time Key wrote these words, the British military included a regiment of former slaves called the Colonial Marines, whom the British had encouraged to escape and then trained and armed.

In fact, just weeks before on Aug. 24, 1814, the Colonial Marines had participated in the Battle of Bladensburg outside Washington, D.C. The Bladensburg fight was a quick, embarrassing defeat for American troops — something (Francis Scott) Key knew because he’d witnessed it close up as a volunteer aide to a U.S. general. The British forces, including the Colonial Marines, had then continued to Washington the same day, infamously occupying and torching the White House.
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By the mid-1800s, the phrase “hireling and slave” could be found in the writing of slavery’s supporters to differentiate between wage laborers and those in actual bondage. Whether this usage was adopted from “The Star-Spangled Banner” or the other way around is unclear, but William Grayson, a U.S. representative from South Carolina, even titled a famed 1855 pro-slavery poem “The Hireling and the Slave.” Grayson contended that slavery had been a “blessing” for Africans and was morally superior to a system of wage work. Grayson also described whites using a new term he had coined: a “master race.”
…
The popularity of “The Star-Spangled Banner” grew continuously in the decades after Key wrote the lyrics. By the time of the Civil War, some on both sides tried to claim it as their own.

Tellingly, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. felt if the song were to belong to the North it would need a new stanza — one he provided, invoking “the millions unchained who our birthright have gained.” By contrast, supporters in the South did not believe it required any changes. “Let us never surrender to the North the noble song, the ‘Star-Spangled Banner,’” the Richmond Examiner editorialized in 1861 in the capital of the Confederacy. “It is Southern in origin, in sentiments, in poetry, and song. In its association with chivalrous deeds, it is ours.”

In the subsequent decades, the “The Star-Spangled Banner” continued to be contested territory and the subject of what we’d now term a culture war. By the early 1900s, versions of the song that included Holmes’ words were found in schoolbooks in New York, Indiana, Louisiana, and elsewhere.

When Confederate veterans realized this, they quickly organized to force state governments, including that of New York, to withdraw the textbooks. The New York Times declared that Holmes’ words were a “monstrous perversion” and Holmes himself was a “presumptuous ass.” (The extra stanza has since largely evaporated and is not part of the anthem’s official lyrics.)

The skirmishing continued after the carnage of World War I, as momentum grew for the U.S. to adopt a formal national anthem. Pacifists denounced “The Star-Spangled Banner” as a war-mongering, anti-British jingle. A progressive heiress took out an anti-Banner ad in several newspapers, and several Columbia University professors announced a contest for a more suitable replacement.

On the other side, Maryland Congressman John Linthicum, the Daughters of the Confederacy, and other Southern civic organizations declared that the song was the essence of American patriotism.

By the 1920s the battle lines were clear. Those who wanted to celebrate the post-Civil War unity of North and South without reference to the abolition of slavery favored “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Many Northerners preferred the emancipationist spirit of “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” or the stately grandeur of “America the Beautiful.” African-Americans had their own ideas, and in 1926 adopted “Lift Every Voice” by Florida poet James Weldon Johnson as a black national anthem.

In 1931 there was finally a clear winner: Congress approved, and President Herbert Hoover signed, Rep. Linthicum’s bill making “The Star-Spangled Banner” America’s one and only national anthem.

Controversy ensued within 48 hours. Partisans of the Banner held a parade in Linthicum’s Baltimore district, led by two color guards: one hoisting the American flag, the other carrying the Confederate flag.

The Union Army veterans marching in the parade dropped out and denounced the damned rebels for hijacking the proceedings. In response, one neo-Confederate woman — in what sounds like an indignant Facebook post from this year — accused the offended Union veterans of being un-American and “divisive.”

The suppression of history embodied by “The Star-Spangled Banner” is by no means unique to the U.S. On the contrary, it’s universal: The most important and painful realities of any society’s past tend to be forgotten unless constant efforts are made to remember them.
…
The suppression of history embodied by “The Star-Spangled Banner” is by no means unique to the U.S. On the contrary, it’s universal: The most important and painful realities of any society’s past tend to be forgotten unless constant efforts are made to remember them.

Ah Clio. My constant companion. I rarely visit Euterpe anymore though my vocal range is undiminished.

I prefer to warm up with White Rabbit.

Damn right I can still hit all the notes.