American National Anthem - About America or Soldiers?

[Greenday]

The ongoing debate. I'm sick of people trying to discount athletes and their protest of the national anthem by saying they are disrespecting the soldiers who fight for America. Since when is the National Anthem about a country's soldiers? The national anthem is about a country as a whole, not a select group of individuals. They don't play every country's national anthem at the Olympics and international sporting events to just honor each country's military. But for some reason, that's different.

[D_Yeti_Esquire]

I'm not. Frankly I think people put way to much stock in a group of people that are subjected to the Anthem non-stop all season. I don't care what they think and I don't care what they do. If I had to hear "God Bless America" in addition to it 180 times a season, I also wouldn't care if someone started dancing jigs.

That said, stow your expectations about what the Anthem means because basically it means different things to different people. That can't really be helped. A conservative family believing in God and Country and Troops will tend to focus on the battle elements of the anthem. If you're like me, you focus on the great experiment nature of it with its imperfection, its noble ideas, and its wiggle room to do better. If you're far enough on the liberal spectrum, its obvious that some flat out view it as an anthem of oppression.

I don't get to be mad about that - but if you read what I am saying about how I actually view it, you can see why ultimately I hate the 1st and 3rd (they're both naively pure) views of it. And I have to put up with mine is not the common view. Heck, those same views would rear themselves in a reading of the Gettysburg address. One would see the militaristic nobleness of the cause, I'd sit there looking at a point of conflict and peril in a grand experiment, and some would rightly note that its racists fighting other racists to be slightly less racist.

[Gravekeeper]

It can mean different things to different people but they can stfu about forcing what it means to them on everyone else and calling people traitor's for disagreeing.

-.-

[jackfaire]

To be honest it's never really meant anything to me.

It doesn't fill me with pride, disgust or anything and it sure as hell doesn't make me think about America. There a lot of songs that do make me think "Hell Yeah America" the Star Spangled Banner is not on that list.

And here's why much like the pledge of allegiance it's not about the people, the history, our culture. It's about the flag. Both things are about worshiping a piece of cloth rather than honoring what any of it is supposed to mean. It's like loving room because the rug really ties the room together and loving the rug because same.

I mean I guess it does represent some people's idea of America "You can treat my neighbor's like shit all you want but if you disrespect the flag oh hell no"

But I feel that's more a product of flag worship and less the cause of it. I think we should care more about the people in our country and less about the symbols of it.