‘Banner’ should give way to more unifying anthem

We are in desperate need of a new national anthem.

In 1814, as slaves swam toward the British ships to freedom, the slave-holding Francis Key penned these words in the third stanza of “The Star Spangled Banner”: “No refuge could save the hireling and slave (referring perhaps to the former slaves, the Colonial Marines) 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!”

Key was a slave-holding lawyer from an old Maryland plantation family, who, thanks to a system of human bondage, had grown rich and powerful. Key once said Africans in America, were “a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community.”

Before 1931, other songs served as the hymns of U.S. officialdom. “Hail, Columbia” served this purpose at official functions for most of the 19th century. “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” also served as an anthem.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. felt that 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.

By the 1920s, the battle lines were clear. Those who wanted to celebrate the postCivil War unity of North and South without reference to the abolition of slavery favored “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Many Northerners preferred the emancipation 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 Ev’ry 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, Maryland Rep. John C. Linthicum’s bill making “The StarSpangled 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.

Is it paramount to recite the anthem before athletic contests; why so few other events? Why should oppressed people be coerced to respect this song? We need a national anthem that unites this diverse, multi-cultural country we all love.

We need a commission to write a new national anthem!

We are also desperately in need of a new Pledge of Allegiance.

Francis Bellamy, who in 1892, penned the Pledge of Allegiance, was a Christian Socialist who championed the rights of working people and the equal distribution of economic resources. Bellamy believed such was consistent with the teachings of Jesus.

In fact, Bellamy was forced to stop preaching in church about what he saw as the evils of capitalism, and, after moving to Florida, and witnessing the racism here, eventually stopped attending church altogether. Francis’s career as a preacher ended because of his tendency to describe Jesus as a socialist.

Bellamy believed in the absolute separation of church and state and, therefore, his original pledge did not include the phrase “under God.”

His pledge was accompanied with a salute to the flag known as the Bellamy Salute, similar to the Nazi salute with an outstretched arm toward the flag. During World War II, the salute was replaced with a hand-over-heart gesture.

In its original form it read: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, and although Bellamy’s daughter objected, President Dwight Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words “under God,” creating the 31-word pledge we say today.

I suggest this: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for which it stands one nation under the with

liberty and justice for

all.”