07-02-2016, 03:30 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/major-league-baseball-permanently-retire-god-bless-america-article-1.2693228?utm_content=buffer54b9b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Quote:It’s time for God to stop blessing America during the seventh-inning stretch.
Welcome to the July 4 holiday weekend — when once again, baseball fans will be assaulted by the saccharine-sweet non-anthem “God Bless America” at stadia all over this great land.
But no matter which home team you root, root, root for, “God Bless America” should be sent permanently to the bench.
Now, don’t get me wrong: When Major League Baseball ordered all teams to play the patriotic jingle after 9/11, I didn’t immediately object. Standing with my fellow fans, as one, and singing a paean to our country provided catharsis, comfort and shared heartache.
But it wasn’t long before heartache became headache. The Yankees still play it at every game, but most teams, like my beloved Mets, play “God Bless America” only on Sundays or holidays. But even that’s too much.
Part of my outrage stems from ponderous Mussolini-esque introduction of the song, when fans are asked to rise, remove their caps and place them over their hearts.
Reality check, friends: “God Bless America” is not the National Anthem. The only songs Americans should stand for are “The Star Spangled Banner” and “Here Comes the Bride.”
Fans are asked to stand and remove their caps for “God Bless America,” as if it is an important song. It is not. It is a pop song that even Irving Berlin disliked.
(ALEX BRANDON/AP)
Even Irving Berlin, who wrote “God Bless America” in 1918, considered it so maudlin and depressing that he stuck it in a drawer. Twenty years later, as the world prepared for war, Kate Smith asked Berlin for a patriotic song for her radio show. He pulled out “God Bless America” and changed one lame line — “the gold fields up in Nome” — to an even lamer line — “oceans white with foam.” You know the rest: Smith’s version became as much a symbol of post-war patriotism as the flag, the space program and all the white people moving to the suburbs.
The song still embodies great things about America, but also our worst things: self-righteousness, forced piety, earnest self-reverence, foam.
I’m certainly not alone. A poll conducted by Sheryl Kaskowitz for her 2013 book, “God Bless America: The Surprising History of an Iconic Song,” says it all:
More than 61% of baseball fans — even some who like the song — don’t want it played at games.
“God Bless America” is as divisive as American politics: Kaskowitz’s research found that 83.8% of people who described themselves as “very liberal” dislike the song, while only 20.5% of people who called themselves “very conservative” have a problem with it.
And more than 88% of atheists dislike the song, Kaskowitz found. (Quick aside: We atheists also hate having “In God we Trust” on the currency and in the courtrooms of a country whose Constitution bars the “establishment of religion” — but that’s a fight for another day.)
Quote:I'm not alone: 61% of baseball fans — even some who like the song — don’t want it played.
The song also offends:
* Believers!: Charlie Pillsbury once ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate and one of his issues was his objection to “God Bless America.” “God shows no partiality towards nations,” he said. “God blesses the whole world.”
* Foreigners!: I once went to a Brooklyn Cyclones game with a British guy named James Silver, who smiled when “God Bless America” was being played. “It’s exactly what I expect from Americans,” he said. “The self-righteousness, the patriotism. It’s always nice to see my opinions confirmed.”
* Woody Guthrie!: In response to “God Bless America,” the great folk singer wrote “This Land Is Your Land,” which offers the flip side of Berlin’s blind optimism: “By the relief office, I saw my people/As they stood there hungry, I stood there wondering/If God blessed America for me.”
* Fans of the actual other National Anthem!: Unlike “God Bless America,” the better seventh-inning song, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” captures the essential joy of American life: You go to a baseball game and you don’t care if you ever get back. And, sure, you root for the home team, but who cares if it wins or loses? You’re at a BALLGAME! With peanuts AND Crackerjack!
So this July 4, join me at the Church of Baseball by not rising and not doffing your cap for a song that is not the national anthem of a nation that is not uniquely blessed by some deity that doesn’t exist anyway.
If you want to thank God for blessing America, you can do it on Sunday in the other church.
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.