I learned something today about our National Anthem...
 

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My bad. I always thought that "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States.

National anthem
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A national anthem (also state anthem, national hymn, national song, etc.) is generally a patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions, and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style.

It appears I slept through this in Civics class....>>>

NOW.... (talk about divisive IMO)>

From USA Today (article linked below)

NFL will play Black national anthem 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' before each Week 1 game


Starting with the nationally televised regular-season opener between the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs on Sept. 10, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Black national anthem, will be performed before every Week 1 kickoff, before "The Star-Spangled Banner," according to a person familiar with ongoing discussions.

NFL plans Black national anthem 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' in Week 1

Francis Scott Key author of the star spangled banner was a well know slave owner. There is controversy over verse three with perhaps some reference to slavery but difficult to translate. FYI the melody is from an old British drinking song.

Next we will be saluting a BLM flag and singing Kumbayah. The NFL players today are overpaid prima donnas not fit to walk in the cleats of the players of the past. As for the NBA I’ll take Bob Cousy any day.

I used to be addicted to watching sports. But after Covid and no sports, I have realized that I was wasting a lot of time. Another Covid silver lining I guess? When sports finally come back, I was planning to watch again but much more selectively. If sports become nothing more than a platform for social justice issues, I am totally done. I watch sports to see sports. If I want to see social justice as the main point, I will watch the news channels that jam that stuff down the viewers throats.

It is beyond sad when sports go down the tube. If they play some contrived garbage instead of the Star Spangled Banner I am through with them.

Me too ... same with college football if they start to go full woke SJW ad nauseum. I'm done with the sport at that point, and no more donations for that matter to the alma mater.

My question is ... are the leaders really that obtuse? Guess we'll tune in and find out.

Are you kidding me
 

I am so sorry to see it come to the point that we feel the need to select a single group of people to celebrate by singing a song that represents them at football games. No, it isn’t that I don’t recognize the importance, I simply don’t understand why we are singling out one group. Should we hold a concert before each game consisting of every song representing every culture. I am sorry we have become so divided as a country that it has come to this. I wonder, and I hope not, but will people begin to take a knee when that song is played. It will only add fuel to the fire that is currently leading to a civil war.

You do not mix, sports, religion and politics

A little late for that. Been going on for quite a while.

I recall not that long ago, 20 years or so, Nascar drivers were already in their cars and strapped up when the national anthem was played.

The NFL could be making a big mistake!
What happens when some fans refuse to stand for the Black National Anthem?

In any case. HAPPY 4th!
Enjoy your independence....while we still have it.

100% true. I’m right behind you

Agree. Black national anthem?? That has to be the joke of the day. Wake up people and see whats happening here and its not pretty.

Written by the poet James Weldon Johnson and the composer John J. Johnson in 1900. It’s a hymn, but you can march to it or waltz to it, depending on how you accentuate it. Just in case you wondered what it sounds like and what the words are, here it is.

YouTube

So, when you are at the game, will you stand and salute or will you take a knee?

The melody goes back to maybe 1773, so it was barely forty years old when Key’s lyrics were written. It was the anthem sung at each meeting of a group of wealthy amateur singers who got together to sing and also drink. It was not a barroom song—way too difficult to sing.
The Anacreontic Song - Wikipedia
Key was a prominent lawyer, not a “well known slave owner.” I don’t think he owned a plantation. He did own some slaves, which was entirely legal in Maryland. He also freed a number of them, provided pro bono representation at times for people of African descent, and spent ten years pushing the will of my ancestor John Randolph of Virginia through the courts—a difficult process because Randolph freed 400 slaves. He was not an abolitionist, but neither was Abraham Lincoln until it was politically useful. He was a member of a society dedicated to helping free or freed Africans return to Africa—a worthy goal, and again one Lincoln approved of for awhile.

Why do we have to have the Star Spangled Banner or anything played before a game? Why can’t they just come out and play?

I'm taking a knee. Ron

It is out of respect and love of our country that our National Anthem is played before a sporting event. When an American hockey team plays against a Canadian team, the Canadian National Anthem is also played. If you object to listening to our national anthem, mute your TV until the game begins.

I’m laughing. Yesterday I saw a meme on Facebook complaining that NASCAR would no longer begin each race with the national anthem and a prayer. I love the TV series “Friday Night Lights”. In that show, though, the team had a group prayer in the locker room before every game, led by the coach. I remember the scene in the great World War II movie “Catch—22” where Buck Henry asks the “padre” to offer “a nice snappy prayer” before a bombing mission, and when it drags on, Colonel Cathcart butts in and asks God for nice tight bombing patterns that will destroy the enemy. I remember the old Bob Dylan song “With God on Or Side.”

Do they play the “National Anthem” and “Pledge of Allegiance” prior to PGA Tournaments?

That is a hard song to sing. But, so is the Star Bangled Banner, which by the way has only been our national anthem since1931.
I vote for America the Beautiful!

You are so spot on!! Everything you said is so true and exactly how I feel. Taking down statues and singing songs that are for one group are only going to divide us more than we already are. Sad that this country has come to this fork in the road.

Here is the story behind the Star Spangled Banner. It is the how and why it was written.

Short History of The Star Spangled Banner | American Battlefield Trust

Here is the third verse by the way, which is never sung.

It does have the word slave in it but it doesn't appear to me to be talking about African slaves specifically.

Will we be banning the Bible next because of the references to slaves?

I think that what some are missing here is that the US Flag was the flag of the north in the Civil War. It's the symbol of those who fought to end slavery.

I don't know how you can fight to get rid of the Stars and Bars and also the Star Spangled Banner?

Very nice song m, but not sure I need to hear it before NFL game. They stoped showing national anthem on TV last year. So are we going to see this instead this year. I will stand for national anthem not the black national anthem. That might be cultural appropriation!

My guess is the players will stand for the black national anthem and then kneel for America's national anthem.

Remember, Wikipedia is an on line collection of posts that have been compiled.
The Merrimack-Webster Dictionary defines as ......Definition of national anthem
: a song that praises a particular country and that is officially accepted as the country's song.
That is The Star Spangled Banner 🇺🇸

Prefer to watch old movies or rerun TV shows than paying to watch millionaire “oppressed people” grandstand their PC public stance.

No more NFL NBA or paid athlete college games for me.

Anything white has to go. Everything.

They've mixed since the beginning of time. Most notibly Jesse Owens and Hitler, Jackie Robinson, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Muhammad Ali, the 1980 US Hockey team, Olympic boycotts, Colin Kaepernick knealing, NBA players protesting the anthem, Shawn Green not playing baseball on Yom Kippur, the Phoenix Suns honoring Hispanic heritage after Arizona enacted strict immigration law, NBA players wearing hoodie for Trayvon Martin, the University of Missouri football team having a hunger strike to force the university president to resign over racist environment on campus, WNBA/NBA playeRS wearingn"I can't breathe" shirts.

It goes on and on and on. They've always intersected and always will. Either your point is weak and invalid or you've never paid attention and I'm not sure which is worse.

well at least now we know why the NFL refs make so many stupid calls and get so many of the calls wrong...they're just following the commissioner's mode of operation

Roger, call a time out and take advantage of the replay booth and reverse the call on this one

dumb, stupid, confused, misguided are among the adjectives that I'll use in mixed company on this call

so what's going to happen when the cameras pan the stadium and show everyone that bought a ticket sitting in their seats when this "BNA" is played....yeah, that's gonna help bring us together...you can bet they won't show that on the tube

Roger, you're part of the problem...go away

I'm curious to see if people in the stands bother to get out of their seats for each song, pick one and not the other or stand for both? Good time to virtue signal? What if you don't stand up will you be pointed out? Video could be put on social media of people taking a knee on one but not the other leading to them being called a racist?

I don't watch sports or television so it doesn't matter to me.

I thought the civil rights struggle was about equality. Where are you MLK?

I will not stand for the black national anthem this will do more to harm race relations

I learned something today about our National Anthem
 

So 16% of our population will determine what national anthem will be played. Now that is a democracy? BLM is out of control.

Facilitated by spineless, owners, operators, managers, politicians and anybody else caving in to the current wave of stupid, uncalled for demands (of the few).

We will see how much attention those who choose not to stand during the proposed song (calling it the black national anthem only validates the cause) receive.

Let's hope and pray it is the hoola hoop effect and will die away.

I am done with NFL 100%.......not only because to do stupid things like this but also because it has gotten more violent over the years

QUOTE=tophcfa;1796700]I used to be addicted to watching sports. But after Covid and no sports, I have realized that I was wasting a lot of time. Another Covid silver lining I guess? When sports finally come back, I was planning to watch again but much more selectively. If sports become nothing more than a platform for social justice issues, I am totally done. I watch sports to see sports. If I want to see social justice as the main point, I will watch the news channels that jam that stuff down the viewers throats.[/QUOTE]

I agree. Sporting events used to be a diversion from politics and controversy and our everyday problems. It didn’t matter whether you were white or black, Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal. We were all just wanting to enjoy the fun and relaxation that went with watching the sport and the competition. But now it’s all about “who’s gonna kneel, what song is gonna play, what are the players gonna say about the issue of the day? Now college football players are determining what t-shirt the coach can wear or what network he can or can’t watch. I have already quit watching NFL because of the politics. Now we have the so-called black national anthem being played along with the Star Spangled Banner. Are college sports next? I think so. And like you it’s not that turning the game off is my way to protest, it’s that the enjoyment I received by being able to escape for just a little while has been lost. The same goes for concerts. I go to be musically entertained, not to be lectured about politics. I respect their right to their opinion but I don’t want to have to listen to their political views any more than they care to hear mine, especially when it’s on my dime!







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Why would anyone stand .......it’s not the National Anthem