General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis country's national anthem is about WAR.
Moving, descriptive lyrics about war.
Is it any wonder, since our independence from Britain, that our history is riddled with war, and that in recent times, that's all we seem to be about?
Any progress we've made towards cooperation and compassion seems to eventually be undone and negated (even if it takes decades).
We say and want the rest of the world to believe we're all about freedom, equality, pursuit of happiness, blah blah blah......
It's more like every man for himself, carrying a pistol if possible, taking what he wants.
louis-t
(23,273 posts)and shooting anything that moves, the 1% will be able to finish the looting of the country.
JI7
(89,241 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Let's go children of the fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny's
Bloody flag is raised! (repeat)
In the countryside, do you hear
The roaring of these fierce soldiers?
They come right to our arms
To slit the throats of our sons, our friends!
Refrain
Grab your weapons, citizens!
Form your batallions!
Let us march! Let us march!
May impure blood
Water our fields!
Avalux
(35,015 posts)JRLeft
(7,010 posts)"The land of the Prosperous Criminals, and the home of the Cowards."
The land of the free and home of the brave is a lie.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025807932
dumbcat
(2,120 posts)If only we had a Peace Anthem the world would be a better place. Call your Congressperson right now!
Avalux
(35,015 posts)You know I'm right. It's people who think like you that keep us from moving towards peace.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)Americas war machine has had a stranglehold over our democracy, our media, our churches, our retailers, our lives for a long time.
NanceGreggs
(27,813 posts)Whodda thunk it?
The explanation was right there under our noses - so simple. Some might even say simple-minded.
Damn that Francis Scott Key. If only he'd written a peaceful anthem, the course of our history would have been completely different.
I've always kind of like you....thanks for insulting me.
deaniac21
(6,747 posts)[link:
|LeftInTX
(25,151 posts)Mexicans, at the cry of war
Make ready the steel and the bridle
And let the earth shake to the core
At the roar of the cannon
And let the earth shake to the core
At the roar of the cannon
Gird, oh country, your head with an olive wreath
Given by the divine archangel of peace
Since your eternal destiny was written in heaven
by the finger of God
But should a foreign enemy
Profane your ground with their sole
Think, oh beloved country, that heaven
Has given you a soldier in every son
Dear homeland! Dear homeland!
Your children swear
To exhale breath in your cause
If the bugle in its belligerent (warlike) tone
Summons them to fight with courage
You will get the olive garlands!
They will have a memory of glory!
You will get a laurel of victory!
They will have a tomb of honor
Taken from http://lyricstranslate.com/en/mexican-national-anthem-himno-nacional-mexicano-mexican-national-anthem.html#ixzz3ItsZVJzz
hunter
(38,304 posts)As a kid, my mom was a Jehovah's Witness and me and my siblings would sit out both the pledge and the anthem in school.
The Witnesses eventually kicked my mom out of their church because she couldn't stay out of secular politics. Literally kicked her out, bouncers at the Kingdom Hall door. My siblings and I have a really funny story about my mom and a car and a structure but I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is.
Soon after we were Quakers who have similar pacifist anti-oath-taking beliefs, but a much higher tolerance for people like my mom who always say what they think.
Myself, I've reverted to my ancestral left wing social justice Catholicism, but I'm still a heretic. It's a family tradition.
AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)martial struggles? WTF? Are you serious?
sarisataka
(18,501 posts)Le jour de gloire est arrivé !
Contre nous de la tyrannie,
L'étendard sanglant est levé, (bis)
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats ?
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras
Égorger vos fils, vos compagnes !
Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons !
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons ! (bis)
LeftInTX
(25,151 posts)The OP had me looking for national anthem lyrics in other countries. France fit the bill with a bit of blood and guts.
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny
Raises its bloody banner (repeat)
Do you hear, in the countryside,
The roar of those ferocious soldiers?
They're coming right into your arms
To cut the throats of your sons and women!
Form your battalions,
Let's march, let's march!
Let an impure blood
Water our furrows!
sarisataka
(18,501 posts)Look like a kiddie carnival
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Boom Sound 416
(4,185 posts)Not the meaning
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)But I personally say the current song is about revolution.
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)But yes, This Land Is Your Land would be a zillion times better.
Avalux
(35,015 posts)But it doesn't quite get people worked up the way "bombs bursting in air" does.
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)Which is why I never stand for it or join in singing it.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)Jenoch
(7,720 posts)Our country was founded because of a war.
We were attacked and defended ourselves and that is from where the lyrics came.
The lyrics are not about the U.S. attacking another country.
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)Europeans invaded, then claimed this land etc as their own, and fought a war with their ancestrial country.
These lyrics are about war.
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
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.
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation.
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)16ty, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries by 21st cebtury standards.
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)It was not the National Anthem until 1931
It is about seeing the flag, meaning the fort had held. The British were there, uninvited. It was a defensive war.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Baclava
(12,047 posts)I do like the Canadian anthem better though.... because hockey players can sing it.
It's sweet.
davidn3600
(6,342 posts)RoBear
(1,188 posts)I taught music for years, with some university English later. In both cases, I had occasion to make the observation that the NA was based on "To Anacreon in Heaven," but had never heard it nor seen it published it. Now I have heard it at last, thanks to you!!!
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)Throckmorton
(3,579 posts)zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)yawnmaster
(2,812 posts)Avalux
(35,015 posts)I'm just so damn sick of war and fighting...and those who benefit from it. We've been in a perpetual state of war for a long time...but not really...not enough for the American people to stand up to it.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)It's the name of a book I read. It's not perfect, but it is a bit enlightening about our history and the military influences on our culture.
Interesting tid bit. Public education got a huge push after WWI. Pershing shows up in Europe with this boat load of draftees and finds out they can't read, they can't do math, can't read a map, etc. They have to run schools to educate the draftees so they can function. After WWI, the push for basic public education took on a justification of having a population that was ready to be drafted.
Oh, and there are zippers on men's pants because standard Army issue uniforms had them, and the men came home and didn't want buttons on their flies anymore.