I recently attended an elementary school event, where they give out those little “My kid is Student of the Month at xxxxx Elementary School”. Before the actual ceremony started, we were treated to the all of the kids in the school singing Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA. I was a little uncomfortable with this, but couldn’t really put my finger on why. Maybe it was because I’m not much of a fan of country music. Maybe it was because it wasn’t really a traditional song (I remember singing The Star Spangled Banner, My Country Tis of Thee, God Bless America and This Land is Your Land when I was in school). Maybe it was because of the “God bless” part. Maybe it’s the undercurrent of nationalism that song seems to evoke.
Anyway, I’m looking for other folks’ take on this: Should this song bother me? Should it bother me when it’s sung by kids at school (so obviously the school has them practice this; I think that they might sing it every morning right after the Pledge of Allegiance)? Am I being overly sensitive?
Here’s the first verse and chorus and a link to the complete lyrics, for anyone who might not know what song I’m talking about:
I don’t see anything wrong with the song. Some people might not like the mention of God but I don’t see how the term “God bless America” is any more controversial than “One nation under God”.
Shibb, if it were me, I’d be pretty PO’d. For me, it’s the undercurrent of nationalism you mention that pushes my buttons - I think it’s inappropriate for school.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with the song either. I don’t think it is anything other than a statement that the writer is proud of where he lives and the freedoms that he has. There is nothing wrong with that IMHO.
I don’t think there’s anything politically wrong with the song. OK, maybe it’s a little on the jingo-istic side, but not much worse than, say, “My country 'tis of the” or any of the other patriotic songs.
My problem with it is that it’s just such a bad song. It’s maudlin and sappy, from the cheesy lyrics to the sweeping string arrangements. And, like many other things that get wrapped in the flag, it seems somehow immune to criticism. When I was in the military, I heard this song all the time. It makes my skin crawl.
This might be what really bothers me. The song itself really does absolutely nothing for me. And it sounds really awful being sung by a bunch of elementary school kids, particularly the first stanza. (Og bless their little hearts)
When my sister and I went to Newport News to visit our brother, we went with him and some of his navy buddies and their girlfriends to a bar. Later in the evening, the bar played that song, and every person in the place except me and my sister was singing at the top of their lungs. When the two marines in their dress whites came up on stage and saluted for the entire song, my sister and I just rolled our eyes and later agreed that you would just NEVER EVER see that in California. Weird, weird, weird. Of course this was October 2001, mind you.
I agree that its a bad song, and very jingoistic. That said, other “patriotic” songs are not any better.
One thing that bothers me is it uses the word “ain’t”. And “'cause”.
Maybe it’s really okay, but it bugs me. I don’t want my child to use “ain’t”. I would rather they learn to say “is not” or “isn’t”. I don’t care that it’s in the dictionary now. It makes me cringe when I hear it, and if I hear children not just saying it, but singing it in a song about national pride… I’d just die a little inside.
No, I’m not an American yet, but I’m living here, and I chose to live here, and so I take pride in where I live. No one forced me to come here. But there is something about that song I can’t put my finger on, and it bugs me a little, too. Maybe I’m like the OP… it’s a little bit of everything.
Maybe it is because when we go to a school function for our children we have this way out notion that it should be about education and learning. Not that singing songs of national pride are all bad…it’s just not necessarily why you show up at school functions.
(plus it is a kind of mawdling song, esp. if you don’t like country music)
In a public school I don’t see anything wrong with a little bit of nationalism. I can see where the “God Bless” could bother some people and “ain’t” would bother others, but I don’t see where this song differs significantly with America the Beautiful or My Country Tis of Thee, which no one objected to when we sang them in our school.
I am strongly unfond of that song. Getting into the reasons for it probably belongs in another forum, and I have no burning desire to Pit it, so there you go.
I should point out that I was in third grade in 1972. Watergate was going on, there were riots occasionally not far from my house (we lived in the DC Suburbs) and I was in Catholic school, reciting Hail Marys, Our Fathers, the Apostle’s Creed and attending mass at least once a week during school hours. It was certainly not in my background to object (you’d be damning yourself to hell! :eek:) I’d just met my first Jewish kid. I did not know any Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, etc. I doubt that I knew what atheism was (and if I did it was those “godless Commies” that were trying to kill our troops over in 'Nam"). Times are different now. The old songs I find quaint. I’m not anti-religious, but I’m no longer religious, either. I tell my kids about Christianity, Judaism and Islam as part of their bedtime stories, or during long car rides. I also tell them about the Lord Buddha, bodhisattva, the Crusades, and how people have killed each other over religious and nationalist disputes over the years. I try and inform them about these things as fairly as I can, so that they can decide what they want to believe. I’m not sure I want the Florida public school system influencing this decision, and I cannot afford to put them into private school (money) or homeschool them (time).
It’s also nearly unsingable, especially by kids. The tune meanders and has absolutely no hooks other than the final seven notes. I saw people trying to sing it after 9/11 and they just couldn’t remember the tune – which is about as forgettable as a song can be. They sort of mumbled along the entire time until they came to “God Bless the USA.”
Personally, I’d pick “America, the Beautiful” which is everything a patriotic song should be. And also “This Land is Your Land,” to remind people.
Heh… I always thought it was “…God shed disgrace on thee…”. Until, of course, I became old enough to realize that that didn’t make sense lyrically; by which time, of course, it did make sense lyrically…
When my son’s elementary school taught the kids this song, they just left out the first verse rather than face the weirdness of 8 year olds earnestly singing about what would happen if they lost everything but their wives and children. Good call, that. His teacher also used it to help with geography, they might not have known every state on the map but they knew the places named in the song.
Yep, it’s maudlin, not great lyrically or musically, yep it’s nationalistic and mentions God, I just can’t really muster up a good rage about it though. Rather, I like to use it, as well as the traditional holiday carols they learned, as an example to all the ignorant fundies that scream about “public schools outlawing God and Christmas!” Always fun to poke fundies.
Except that it’s as much a protest song as a patriotic one.
As for Lee Greenwood’s song, it’s a piece of godawful tripe that should be shoved down the memory hole. But in general, I’ve never been into forcing kids to sing nationalistic songs, no matter how well-written they are. I always hated having to do it in elementary school, since I was there to learn, not to perform at school functions like some kind of trained monkey. So yeah, that type of thing is probably what’s turning our youth into godless heavy-petting Commie scum.
Then again, I have fond memories of the time my fourth-grade music teacher told us to write an essay on what song we thought would make a good national anthem if we didn’t use “The Star-Spangled Banner.” My succinct response was, “I think ‘Cool Jerk’ should be the national anthem, because most Americans think they’re cool, but they’re really jerks.” I’ve since partially recovered from my crippling misanthropy, but I still think “Cool Jerk” would make a badass national anthem, if only because it would prove that we, as a nation, know how to collectively get down.
Athiest checking in here. I have no problem with the reference to god. My beef with “God Bless The USA” is that it is, long, meandering, unsingable (except for the chorus), and no one knows the words (again, except for the chorus).
America the Beautiful, OTOH, is simple to learn and has a pleasant melody.
However, I prefer a song we learned in Scouts. I think it was called America.
It was sung in rounds:
Simple, soulful, and to the point. Everything a patriotic song should be.
