There’s been a move afoot in recent years to replace “The Star-Spangled Banner” as America’s national anthem with something less aggressive and involved with war.
Some people have advocated using Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.”
Now a group called Sing it America is trying to make sure “The Star-Spangled Banner” stays the national anthem forever.
“The Rasmussen Report said that 15 percent of Americans want to replace the national anthem,” Shelli Manuel, co-chair of Sing It America, pointed out.
Some want it changed because they think “The Star-Spangled Banner” is too hard to sing. But Manuel said others, both inside and outside the United States, are advocating for a change because they find the anthem too militaristic and aggressive.
Manuel is also asking Americans to organize a massive, 50-state sing-along on the anthem’s 200th anniversary, Sept. 14. The hope is that at 5 p.m. EST, Americans gathered at all 50 statehouses would simultaneously sing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“The Star-Spangled Banner” was originally a poem written by lawyer and poet Francis Scott Key and was called “Defence of Fort McHenry.” In the War of 1812, the British had just burned Washington, D.C., and then headed north to defeat American forces in Baltimore.
Fort McHenry stood in the way of British warships reaching the city. Key was being held captive on board one of those British warships.
