Boycott?!

[carl@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Carl Hansen)]

Vickie wrote:

|  * IMHO * the national anthem is stinky and stupid.

IMHO too.  Another wrote:

|  >  You owe some big-time apologies on this one! Perhaps we should
|  >  take a cue from your heroine Sinnead, and have a Vickie boycott on this
|  >  newsgroup until you do....

Exactly what's offensive about Vickie's remark?  She finds an
officially sanctioned (since 1931) symbol stupid & stinky, just how is
that connected to her feelings about _anything_else_, or yours?  Maybe
she won't sing along with you at the next ball game -- which might be
kind of offensive I guess, but it's not clear to me what's at stake
here.

Myself, I think the song's stupid & stinky precisely because it's an
officially sanctioned symbol, and a completely inappropriate one --
come on , TSSB's so irrelevent it's weird.  The narsty imperialist
Brits lobbed bombs into Fort McHenry, missing the flagpole; next
morning F.  Scott Key beholds Old Glory (which is actually a
mutilation of the English war ensign... hmmm ...  ) still
fluttering...  what's the point?  Our native soil hasn't been
threatened by foreign invaders for some time -- kind of the reverse in
fact.  Wiat, maybe the song's "really" about foreign _investors_
threatening native soil-- or about a U.S. air base getting booted out
of Manilla, or those darned flag-burners or anthem-haters, or
something.  Actually "The rocket's red glare / the bombs bursting in
air" always reminded me of ICBMs & 50-megaton airbursts.

Point is, I don't think TSSB reflects the concerns, desires etc.  of
most people in the US.  Hope not anyway.

Vickie proclaimed:

|  I've always liked America The Beautiful better (even with the 
|  reference to God and the "fruited plains"). Our National Anthem 
|  should glorify America's beauty.

Sounds good.  How about "This Land is Your Land"?  (Easy to sing, &
would really stand out at the Olympics) -- or maybe Janice Joplin's
"Mercedes Benz".  Hey, how about  "Song of the Workers' United Front",
or...  or...

Anyway count me out of the boycott.  Heck, I might even start reading
her postings.


Carl Hansen
carl@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu

|  Vickie (one of Vickie'n'Chris)
|  katefans@world.std.com