Bill Press, a radio talk-show host on CurrentTV stated Tuesday he is on a "crusade" to abolish the National Anthem, calling it "embarrassing," "stupid" and "unsingable."
Because it's inherently American to be able to speak freely about such things, good for him. But he's dead wrong.
Press (is that even his real name?) went as far to say that the National Anthem - or in more common lingo, the Star Spangled Banner - is loaded with militaristic "jargon" and that the song implies Americans think they are the only people who are "brave" in the world.
I can think of about 15 dozen ancestors who would be exceptionally upset by that statement alone. Sure, people say upsetting things all the time. It's just as American to say something disagreeable as it is to say something people agree with. But I doubt my ancestors who gave their lives and limbs would think Mr. Press is making a salient argument or that his "crusade" is a worthy expenditure of time and energy.
Here's a thought, Mr. Press: why not use your soapbox to help create a few jobs for Americans who want to work and who want to hold their heads high come payday because they know they are succeeding in helping provide for their families? How about using your microphone to expound on some brilliant idea to solve our country's unyielding economic woes? How about volunteering your time to help some homeless veteran who needs more than a couple of useless nickels flung into his filthy, flimsy cardboard coffee cup?
I have a late uncle who was awarded the purple heart on D-Day. I have another late great uncle who was awarded the bronze star, two grandfathers whose combined chests emblazoned with World War II medals is enough for me to want to fight Mr. Press with every last ounce of energy I have. Don't even get me started on great-grandfathers, Mr. Press, you know, those fith and sixth generation patriarchs who garnered $25 per month pensions for fighting the British a second time in the War of 1812. Or perhaps you'd like to ask the opinion of those seventh and 8th generation patriarchs who marched to Boston and Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 from places like Hingham, Massachusetts and Rehoboth and Braintree and Norwell and Scituate and Abington and Hanover or maybe you'd like to chat with the deceased heroes from my family who were killed in action or wounded or maimed in places like Gettysburg and Cedar Mountain and Red River and Fredericksburg and Five Forks, Chattanooga and Chickimaugua?
How about that Mr. Press? Do you think those men were brave? Or were they, as you say, just "stupid" anachronisms sheepishly murmuring a bunch of "jargon" when hot lead pierced their shoulders and chests and hearts?
Or how about those ancestors who survived such places like Louisbourg or Andersonville or The Marne or the Wyoming Valley Massacre? How about those men, Mr. Press? Were they brave?
I tell you who is brave, Mr. Press. You are. Yes, that's right. You're exceptionally brave, some might say, to want to stand up and fritter away the day launching into a diatribe so antithetical to the spirit of Americanism that it's made me want to write this column. You'd have to be brave to want to claim to be an American while arguing how "stupid" our National Anthem is.
Brave, that is, or, perhaps, cerebrally numb.
I'd just like to see you sit in a radio studio in Libya and tell them their National Anthem is "stupid."
Now that would be brave, sir. But if you did something like that, I'm sure you'd be on your cell dialing for the US Marines quicker than you can say "twilight's last gleaming."
http://dailycaller.com/2012/06/05/current-tvs-bill-press-star-spangled-banner-stupid-and-embarrassing/