I didn't stand for the national anthem

[Cyrano]

I'm not sure, but I think the year was 2005, or 2006, and two wars were in full swing. I didn't believe in these wars. I saw the U.S. as an aggressor that was really fucking up the Middle East, a big chunk of central Asia (Afghanistan and Pakistan), and America itself. I was, what would have been called in the 1960s, a "Peacenik."

It was July 4th, and I was hanging out with a friend at a very large pool at a very large condo. Sometime in the early afternoon, the loudspeaker boomed out that everyone should stand for the playing of the national anthem.

I don't know who decided that playing the national anthem over a loudspeaker at a swimming pool was a good idea. However, when everyone else stood, I decided not to. It was a spur of the moment impulse. It's possible that I wanted to protest our wars, our "leaders", and American arrogance and ignorance.

But, looking back, I really think that most of all, I wanted to protest the concept of "patriotism." The idea that everyone must stand up in respect when some piece of music is being played. Respect for what? I had contempt for virtually everything our country was standing for and doing at that time.

So here's the point. Everyone was standing and I was laying back on a lounge chair. The glances of utter hatred I was receiving were obvious. And the fact that some of those nearby me would have liked to beat me over the head was apparent. It was an uncomfortable moment and I closed my eyes, but didn't move.

Ever since then, I've been thinking about the concept of "patriotism." Standing for a national anthem? Pledging allegiance to a piece of cloth? Nationalism is nothing more than a modern word for tribalism and I don't want any part of it. It makes "Us" distinct from "Them." It's always sucked and it still does.

In closing this rant, it occurs to me that there's another reason that I didn't stand during the playing of the national anthem. It is one of the most grotesque pieces of music ever composed and the lyrics are a glorification of war. Can't we do better than that?

[msongs]

1. flag worship is idolatry and is forbidden by the bible (among other texts) nt

[former9thward]

8. Maybe your edition of the Bible.

Not mine.

[dembotoz]

10. 10 commandments--thou shalt have no other god before me thing

always thought it was pretty straight forward

[former9thward]

11. I am not aware of anyone who salutes the flag

or stands for the national anthem believes it is god.

[RoBear]

2. the music

is, as I recall, an English drinking song. So there you go. Get plastered, sing a drinking song with war lyrics. I agree. I might stand, but I REFUSE to put my hand over my heart.

Similarly, I stopped saying the pledge of allegiance years ago, when I realized (thanks to a Mad magazine graphic) that there WAS no such thing as liberty and justice for ALL; they started it "I will pledge allegiance"--and ended with "liberty and justice for all, including Hispanics, blacks, gay people" (freely paraphrased--my original hard copy has been lost for years).

[Cyrano]

4. I wish more people would not stand when

the national anthem is played.

It could become a form of protest against our so-called "American exceptionalism." The only thing exceptional about America is GOP/teabagger hatred of everything decent or humane.

Then again, not standing during the national anthem may just get you shot by some "patriot." Sigh. I guess it's sad that sitting down for what you believe may get you killed.

[csziggy]

7. You may be thinking of this Mad Magazine poster from 1971

Which I will not post here. The language they used - surely for deliberate effect - is NSFW and is definitely inflammatory. But it, along with other alternative forms of the pledge are included here: http://www.quotecounterquote.com/2011/07/alternative-versions-of-pledge-of.html

[Scuba]

18. Thanks for that link!

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Thank you very, very much for letting us little kids live here. It really, really was nice of you. You didn’t have to do it. And it’s really not freaky that us little, little kids mindlessly recite this anthem every day and pledge their life to a government before they’re old enough to really think about what they’re saying. This is not a form of brainwashing. This is not a form of brainwashing. This is not a form of brainwashing. This is really the greatest country in the whole world. All the other countries suck. And, if this country ever goes to war, as it often wants to do, I promise to help go and kill all the other countries’ kids. God bless Johnson & Johnson. God bless GE. God bless Citigroup. Amen.”

[ChazInAz]

3. ee cummings

i sing of Olaf glad and big

i sing of Olaf glad and big
whose warmest heart recoiled at war:
a conscientious object-or

his wellbelovéd colonel (trig
westpointer most succinctly bred)
took erring Olaf soon in hand;
but-though an host of overjoyed
noncoms (first knocking on the head
him) do through icy waters roll
that helplessness which others stroke
with brushes recently employed
anent this muddy toiletbowl,
while kindred intellects evoke
allegiance per blunt instruments-
Olaf (being to all intents
a corpse and wanting any rag
upon what God unto him gave)
responds, without getting annoyed
"I will not kiss your fucking flag"

straightaway the silver bird looked grave
(departing hurriedly to shave)

but-though all kinds of officers
(a yearning nation's blueeyed pride)
their passive prey did kick and curse
until for wear their clarion
voices and boots were much the worse,
and egged the firstclassprivates on
his rectum wickedly to tease
by means of skillfully applied
bayonets roasted hot with heat-
Olaf (upon what were once knees)
does almost ceaselessly repeat
"there is some shit I will not eat"

our president,being of which
assertions duly notified
threw the yellowsonofabitch
into a dungeon,where he died

Christ (of His mercy infinite)
i pray to see;and Olaf,too

preponderatingly because
unless statistics lie he was
more brave than me:more blond than you

[Cyrano]

5. One of my favorites from cummings.

[Glassunion]

6. The problem with patriotism is that it's been hijacked by the RW.

Your solitary act of protest in and of itself was a patriotic act. Sure the lemmings all stood, hands to heart and sang along in their Wal-Mart brand of "patriotism", the cheap, hey look at how much I love 'Merica kind which is the cheapest of all. Waiving a flag does not make one a patriot. Singing an anthem does not make one a patriot.

Standing (or lounging) for what you believe is right or wrong, in the face of contempt or anger, because you know in your heart you speak or protest the truth is patriotic. Why do think your act was protected by the very first of all of the bill of rights?

[Iggo]

9. At a swimming pool?

LOL...I wouldn't, either.

Flag worshippers have really gone off the deep end.

[Tetris_Iguana]

14. ...

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[Iggo]

15. .

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

12. Overplayed

Save it for Independence Day and international events. High school football? Really? When I tune into a sporting event, I'll watch something else for 2 minutes.

I actually don't mind the song. But to your first and more important point, I'm with you. Wars, Tea Parties, flag pin wearing politicians, not to mention the Mariah Carifying competition, have made what once was a pretty innocuous but lame idea intolerable.

[Populist_Prole]

13. Attended a car show recently

Charity car show actually; bring your classic car, make a donation ( local children's charity ) and just hang out with others and look at some nice iron.

Turned out to be run by some right-wing douchebag: He looked like some blackwater thug and was always babbling loudly into a microphone and LOUD speakers, when he wasn't BLASTING hokey 50's music.

Anyway he then exhorts us to say the pledge of allegiance with him, which pretty much most did, hand over hearts. OK OK. Then he launches into patriotic flag waving flowery bullshit and made several derogatory comments about "this administration" in a sort of back-pedaling "I'm sorry folks, but I just can't help it and gotta say it and get it off my chest" way. Then played some syrupy redneck version of 'The Star Spangled Banner' that almost made me want to throw up in my mouth. I began to wonder if this children's charity was some fundie youth group maybe.

But you know what? I looked around and saw something interesting as this went on. I noticed many people rolling their eyes and/or shaking their heads with either disgust or restrained contempt. That or humorous scoffing. If the "host" naturally thought classic/muscle car owners in the southeast were ripe recipients of right wing jingoistic garbage, he misjudged us absolutely. So while it all irritated me, it was heartening to see that stuff "doesn't play in Peoria" so to speak.

[hunter]

16. As a kid in school I was a Jehovah's Witness and then a Quaker.

Our family was Quaker after my mom burned all her bridges with the Catholics and then the Jehovah's Witnesses.

I've never been "patriotic," never said the pledge in school, which added much to my reputation as a weird kid.

My ancestors ended up in the U.S.A. because European patriotism and nationalism were not working for them.

To them the U.S.A. wasn't so much about opportunity as it was escape from poverty, war, or the hangman.

I can't find immigration records for most of my ancestors. They jumped off ships and swam and ran into the Wild West. I have no proud heritage. My surname was adopted by some immigrant Gaelic bastard who was hoping to escape troubles with the English, and he did well enough here to reproduce, even though he was as crazy as half of us. That crazy seems to be a dominant gene.

One of my few officially recorded ancestors was a mail order bride to Salt Lake City. She didn't like sharing a husband so she ran away with a U.S. government surveyor and they established a homestead in a place that is still remote from any WalMart.

My wife's ancestors are American Indians and various Catholics who resisted the genocides of White Protestant U.S.A.. Some of them sought refuge in Mexico and later returned as "immigrants" even though they'd been Americans for centuries or tens of thousands of years. One of my wife's uncles died fighting Nazis and is buried at Arlington, relocated from a temporary repose in France.

My own ancestry is not so proud. During World War II one of my grandfathers was a non-combatant Army Air-Force officer charged with keeping scientific eccentric people deemed essential to the war effort out of jail, and my other grandfather was a conscientious objector who chose to weld together Liberty and Victory Ships over jail.

Nevertheless, even as a multi-generation dissident, I've been automatically granted white male privileges.

[Scuba]

17. So you're one of "those" people, eh?

Proud to know you!