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Medley
of American Patriotic Music by Lawrence Johnson
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Music:
Star-Spangled
Banner Medley (mp3) INTRODUCTION
On
January 17, 1961, in his final address to the nation, President Dwight
D. Eisenhower prophetically said the following: "we must guard
against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or
unsought, by the military-industrial complex ... Only an alert and
knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge
industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods
and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” In
the recent past, we can see that we have failed miserably to heed
President Eisenhower's warning. I feel that this is mostly because
Americans have been so preoccupied with the highly funded
"gotcha" politics of fear and personal destruction that we
have elected many people who are threatening to usurp some of our most
basic freedoms. Seemingly, these politicians are only watching out for
their wealthy financial supporters in the corrupt high places of
corporate greed. Now, more than ever, we must become that alert and
knowledgeable citizenry that President Eisenhower spoke of. But,
of even greater importance, we must come to these "peaceful methods
and goals" within OUR OWN borders and respect each other whether we
are "White" European-Americans, African-Americans, Native
Americans, Hispanic-Americans or even of different sexual gender etc.
Whether we like it or not, ALL Americans are in the same sinking
ship and we must help one another into lifeboats and swim together in
order to survive this incipient storm. Especially
disturbing to me as a Christian, is that somehow Jesus' ministry of
peace and agape love seems to elude so many of my American Christian
brethren. They seem so ready and willing to follow and support the most
divisive and militaristic politicians so long as these same politicians
speak against stem-cell research and other “Christian” issues and
loudly and repeatedly proclaim their "born again Christian"
beliefs and "family" values. Indeed Jesus warns us against
such apparent "wolves in sheep's clothing." We must remember
that while He readily offered forgiveness and salvation to criminals,
adulterers, tax collectors and other sinners, he had very little
tolerance for the religiously hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees of His
day! (In
saying this I recognize that those of other major religions as well as
some self-declared atheists and humanists often have similar ideals of
peace and love. A central thesis of Jesus' teaching is always voluntary,
and never forced conversion. Thus the advice to His missionaries "I
send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as
serpents, and harmless as doves" (Mt. 10:16). I therefore strongly
condemn the recent declarations by some “fundamentalist” Christian
spokesmen that America should ultimately become some sort of legalistic
and judgmental Christian theocracy. I feel that non-judgmental respect
and agape love for those who are of different faiths, persuasions,
ethnicity, gender etc. are essential to my understanding of the real
meaning of scripture and Christian teachings as well as to my
understanding of how our democracy should function at its best. Indeed,
with great wisdom, our constitution DOES guarantee us freedom of
religion) Equally
disturbing to me as an American who loves his country is that somehow
many Americans are convinced that they can only be considered patriotic
if they support the above-mentioned militaristic and divisive
"family values" politicians and their goals. (We
must also remember that before becoming president, Dwight Eisenhower was
one of our greatest generals and a military man to the core. Yet as
president, he seemed to regard war as an earthly hell and mostly evil,
which should only be waged when absolutely necessary, in the extreme
condition when all other possible peaceful and diplomatic options have
failed.) I
believe that what we need in America today is a new idealistic,
non-militaristic mind-set. A mind-set that not only rejects
unnecessary wars, often instigated for secretive and corrupt reasons,
but also renews the possibilities of truly and finally achieving
the ideals and visions of equality and the pursuit of happiness our
founding fathers set down, but did not achieve or even necessarily
follow, in our Declaration of Independence. Despite
President Obama’s message of hope, change and unity of all
Americans, and his recent inauguration, I firmly believe that our hearts
must change before we can expect our currently divided culture and
politics to permanently change. Indeed music often has a powerful and
subliminally persuasive way of changing hearts. Therefore as a musician,
I ask the question: How might I musically express this new mind-set?
With these thoughts in mind, I present the following: "The
Star-Spangled Banner Medley"
(or Medley of American Patriotic Music) I
am an American. And
I am a Christian. As
an American, I am appalled at the relatively recent moral, military and
political direction of my beloved nation. As
a Christian I am equally appalled by the so-called "Christian"
rationalizations and support for this direction. Near
the end of the Vietnam conflict, I arranged "The Star-Spangled
Banner Medley" in protest of that disastrous and unpopular war.
During that time I often played this medley, but after the war was
settled, it ceased having any immediate meaning and I therefore stopped
playing it. However I recently re-examined it and discovered that today
(with some changes) it seemingly has a far more cogent message than it
originally had in the Vietnam era. I
begin with "The Star-Spangled Banner." The music to
this, our national anthem, was originally derived from a popular British
drinking song from the mid 1700s. (At that time this tune was considered
so difficult to sing that it was often actually used as a sobriety test!
That is, those who could sing it passed the test!). In 1814,
Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics during the English-American War of
1812. It seems that these lyrics display thinking more or less
related to that war and period, but which, unfortunately, are totally
obsolete and disastrous when applied to today’s nuclear era. "The
rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air." This is a hymn that
glorifies war. It equates military superiority and victory with
patriotism. Indeed the first 2 1/2 stanzas' essential meaning is that
our flag can only proudly fly and therefore, our nation can only thrive
through such military victory! I want the reader to understand I am NOT
A PACIFIST. In today's world we need a strong military to deter
various power hungry demagogues and rogue nations, Yet, I feel that in
the present global village, our image as a peace loving, ethical nation
is far more crucial to having a positive international influence and
reputation THAN such military strength. And
later in the 4th stanza "conquer we must, our
cause it is just, And this be our motto: In God is our trust.”
First, who decides when we should wage war because "our cause it is
just?" Is it our past president and/or vice president, apparently
in direct influence of corporate giants such as Exxon Mobil and/or
Halliburton, both of which helped finance their political campaigns and
seemingly expected to benefit greatly from the current Iraq conflict?
And even if we perceive that we have a “just” cause should we
necessarily “conquer” (and ultimately control) our adversaries?
Can we use brutal and bullying military force to promote worldwide
democracy, as president G. W. Bush suggested was part of his reason for
initiating the Iraq War? . Unfortunately since 9-11-01 and our
involvement in Iraq, this militaristic image has proven extremely detrimental
to our reputation. As I mentioned above, I am not against having a
strong military for our national security. But I am certainly against
the above-mentioned saber-rattling attitude, along with the unprovoked,
pre-emptive and unnecessary military aggression that appears to be part
of it. Secondly, if we are to label ourselves "Christian," how
can our trust for such ventures be in God, as this anthem states, when
true Biblical Christian teaching is overwhelmingly unwarlike and
peaceful ("turn the other cheek" Mt.5:39), loving ("Love
thy neighbor as thyself" Mt.22:39), altruistic (Parable of The Good
Samaritan, Lk.10:29-37), and non-materialistic ("You cannot serve
God and mammon" Mt.6:24)? This
is also a "period" anthem of 1814, which includes the elitism,
and “racism” common to that era! We must remember that in 1814, the
only Americans who could legally vote were “aristocratic” people of
means, i.e. "white" European-American landowners of the male
gender - probably 10-15% of the adult U.S. population of that time. Near
the end of the 3rd stanza "No refuge could save the hireling and
slave from the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave." A
hireling in 1814 evidently meant a lower-class "poor" person
of European descent willing to perform, for very small fees, menial or
offensive tasks such as collecting garbage, cleaning streets, stables
etc. Basically, such a person would not have the means to own property
and therefore would have no vote or "refuge." He would thus
lose everything and flee whatever home he had, but at least (according
to these lyrics) he would apparently still have life! However our
African-American slaves, could not legally own anything, since THEY
themselves were property, owned and controlled by their masters, who
most likely would not opt to lose their "property" and allow
their slaves to leave in some "terror of flight" or go to some
elusive and non-existent "refuge." It is also painfully
apparent that because of their obviously different appearance, "the
terror of flight" was totally impractical - i.e. they would
immediately be recognized as runaway slaves. Therefore, it is my opinion
that, (again according to these lyrics), a slave’s only alternative
was "the gloom of the grave." These
thoughts are more fully confirmed by the beginning of the following
fourth stanza: "Oh! Thus be it ever, when freemen shall
stand." Again, it is apparent that in 1814, the only ones who could
legally vote and therefore the only true freemen who would
forever "stand" were somewhat aristocratic people of means,
i.e. as previously mentioned, "white" European-American
landowners of the male gender. It seems therefore, that the logical
question becomes, WHY ARE WE STILL SINGING ABOUT THIS IN 2010?
Has the abolition of slavery, or the later civil rights achievements and
voting rights (including women's suffrage), had no effect on current
thinking? Have the vast majority of today’s American people somehow
been subliminally hoodwinked into thinking that we can and should
somehow revert to the racism, sexism, elitism and other inequalities of
that past era? If not, WHAT IS the relevance of these words today
and more importantly WHY IS THIS STILL OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM? Unfortunately,
in my opinion, our present national anthem represents a mind-set, which
exudes a completely obsolete and backward military, political and
religious morality, which, approximately since 9-11-2001, has largely
accelerated and led our nation to its recent state of militarism,
division, confusion and economic chaos. We have conquered Iraq in an
unnecessary pre-emptive war, waged for apparently deceptive and
erroneous reasons. This "conquering" only took several weeks
because of our military superiority. But for the last 7 years we still
have no clue as to how to win over the people of Iraq because in
reality our "occupation" has no moral authority. In other
words, for trumped up reasons, which are somehow veiled in pseudo
"Christian" rationalizations, we can easily militarily conquer
a foreign land. Yet many are shocked because we are viewed by the
natives of that land (and much of the rest of the world) as bullies who
are attempting to control and occupy their land for our own greed and
purposes. In the meantime, at home the average American suffers and
worries incessantly about the vast economic strain this non-evident
"war on terror" against vague and elusive Iraqi
"terrorists" and "enemies" who stockpile
nuclear and other "weapons of mass destruction," and are
supposedly allies with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, has cost us.
(Past estimated spending for the Iraq war is 12 BILLION dollars per
month). Indeed we are now in a vast and serious financial meltdown.
Unemployment has risen drastically, many banks have failed, the
real-estate market has collapsed. And our national debt has ballooned
astronomically out of control, all of which has possibly put us in an
economic tailspin that we may never fully recover from. There is also an
ever-greater economic disparity between wealthy and poorer Americans (which
tends to eliminate our so-called middle class)
- thus making a mockery of our beliefs and ideals of basic equalities
and opportunities among all Americans. We also have recent legislation,
which seriously threatens to curtail some of our most basic democratic
rights and freedoms of privacy (both financial and otherwise), search
and seizure, etc. (e.g. The Patriot Act). Is this the legacy we
desire to leave to our children? I
PLAY "THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER" TO THE POINT IN THE ANTHEM
WHERE THE "BOMBS ARE BURSTING IN THE AIR." I THEN PLAY AN
INTERLUDE OF MY OWN ENTITLED "FLIGHT OF THE INTERCONTINENTAL
BALLISTIC MISSILE." I
FOLLOW THIS WITH "TWINKLE, TWINKLE LITTLE STAR," A CHILD'S
SONG. THIS SYMBOLIZES THE SUFFERING AND DEATH OF OUR INNOCENT CHILDREN
FROM THIS NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST THAT
EVENTUALLY MAY BE INEVITABLE SHOULD WE CHOOSE TO CONTINUE TO
FOLLOW THIS RECENT MIND-SET. Next
I play "America The Beautiful." This
music is from a hymn written by Samuel A. Ward in 1882. Katharine Lee
Bates wrote the lyrics in 1895 Stanza
1 "O
beautiful for spacious skies" In this statement our poet gives us a
prophetic vision of the respect, value and importance we should give
toward the air we breathe. God has indeed given us clean, pure air yet
unfortunately today our atmosphere is on the brink of becoming so
polluted that the health of all life may already be irreversibly in
jeopardy. We now know that some species are in imminent danger of
extinction because of the global warming caused by this pollution. (This
change will ultimately also apply to humans - it may well cause drought
in present fertile areas and excessive rainfall, hurricanes, flooding in
other areas, thus threatening our own survival. (Also, if the present
rate of global warming continues for another 60+ years, rising sea level
caused by melting polar ice may annihilate coastal areas including many
great cities.) Also humanity is in ever-greater risk of various serious
respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses because of other air pollution.
O
beautiful "For amber waves of grain," and "Above the
fruited plain!" Here our poet celebrates and praises the gift of
our land with its rich fertility to feed us. Furthermore she understands
that "Man shall not live by bread alone," but also by a higher
spiritual perception. "O beautiful for purple mountain
majesties." Not only has God given us sustenance for our physical
needs but also a land of incredible beauty and majesty to bolster our
fundamentally spiritual nature with earthly evidence of the awesome
power and grandeur of Our Creator. And finally "America! America!
God shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood From sea
to shining sea!" This exhorts us on loving and thanking our Creator
for His GRACE by behaving toward EACH OTHER with grace, love and
brotherhood, thus finally rejecting the historic elitism, racism and
sexism of our past. Stanza
2 Our
poet singles out the pilgrims of 1620 as examples of both the best of
Christian behavior and how "White" European-Americans and
Americans of other "races" and cultures should respond to each
other in brotherhood. Upon arriving at Plymouth Rock, the pilgrims found
two vacant Native American houses with much needed food inside. To
prevent their own starvation, they consumed the food but vowed to repay
the natives, which they did six months later when they finally made
contact with them. Thus began a trusting and peaceful friendship that
was to endure for over 50 years. The stories of the first Thanksgiving
and how these pilgrims were taught fishing and planting corn by these
natives (especially by Squanto) and the reciprocal protection by the
pilgrims of our American natives, are supreme examples of how the people
of widely divergent cultures and "races" that now make up our
land can and should create a "thoroughfare of freedom beat"
across the wilderness of fear and ignorance that currently seems to
occupy much of the American psyche or mind-set. America!
America! This
prayer is especially cogent today when our nation seems so intent on
destroying our earth by pollution and global warming and dividing us by
haves and has nots, race, ethnicity and gender. Indeed, if America is to
truly become a Christian oriented nation we must do a far better job of
following the greatest of Christian commandments: "Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew
22:37-40) In
light of the above, how can we truly love the Lord "with all thy
heart, soul, and mind" while we, with blind ignorance and
arrogance, destroy his creation - this wondrous earth that He has so
graciously given us? And how can we "love thy neighbor as
thyself" while many Americans so willingly and ignorantly continue
to follow the malicious propaganda of certain media commentators,
writers and politicians who continue to engage in the politics of fear
and demagoguery to schizophrenically divide Americans into isolated and
suspicious subgroups of "race" and class. This brings us to
the following exhortation in the next verse of this stanza: "Confirm
thy soul in self-control," Our
constitution's first amendment guarantees us freedom of speech and
press. I feel that our founding fathers believed that this freedom would
lead to a reasonable discussion of issues and injustices and ultimately
to a more just and superior democratic republic. Indeed the ideals of
equality and "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," set
out in our Declaration of Independence were ONLY IDEALS when our
nation was founded and when slavery was allowed and only aristocratic
"white" male landowners could vote. Indeed, today it is EVERY
ADULT CITIZEN'S responsibility to take the time and effort to
thoughtfully, calmly and logically sort out the blaring din and
screaming voices of modern politics. In doing so he must weed out those
whose message is fear that is subliminally aimed toward
"other" ethnic groups, alleged "terrorists" etc.
Also he must weed out those who flagrantly use the politics of personal
destruction and other forms of demagoguery. On the other hand it is his
RESPONSIBILITY to vote, work for and support those candidates who best
represent the ideals our nation was founded upon. In doing so we
will indeed confirm our collective American "soul in
self-control." Thus we should have an ever-greater realization of
our founding fathers' initial ideals. In short, an America where
traditional class, "racial," religious and gender barriers
become ever more insignificant and, at least within our borders, we
progressively fulfill the great Christian commandment to "love thy
neighbor as thyself." This brings us to the ultimate conclusion of
this stanza with the following verse: "Thy
liberty in law!" To
me it is obvious that if we become an America that follows the above
precepts of agape love and respect for ALL AMERICANS, that we will
ultimately elect those who will create laws that promote liberty and
justice for all. In doing so we will become an ever greater democracy
which will shine like a beacon of light for the entire world and which
will regain the respect and trust we have, in recent years, so
egregiously and shamefully lost. The
main themes of "America The Beautiful" are contained
within the above first two stanzas. The remaining six stanzas are
further (and sometimes somewhat repetitive) elaborations of these themes
but nonetheless have much wisdom and
many illuminating and valuable thoughts: The
glorious third stanza, which speaks of the true American hero as one who
strives for liberty, would sacrifice his selfish interests for his
country and loves mercy more than life. To my mind, the late Dr. Martin
Luther King serves as a supreme example of this hero: "O
beautiful for heroes proved In
the fourth stanza: O
beautiful for patriot dream Who
or what is a true patriot? The answer is contained in this fourth
stanza. It is one who "sees beyond the years." That is one who
is a GOOD STEWARD and believes and acts in ways that will leave
America a more just and humane place than he found it for future
generations. One who supports a clean, pollution-free America who's
"alabaster cities gleam" and which are "Undimmed by the
human tears" of dirt, poverty, drugs, crime, and racism that today
seems to be such a large fabric of so many current American cities. STANZA
7 I
am old enough to vividly remember the Vietnam War protests and
demonstrations of the 1960s-70s. Many of these demonstrations included
flag burnings. I believe that the vast majority of these
"burnings" were done to demonstrate the false patriotism,
selfish greed and racism that seemed to many to be the true motives for
this Asian war of supposedly freeing the South Vietnamese from communist
aggression. Yes, the flag-burners were labeled as completely unpatriotic
anarchists at the time. But is not this very banner a symbol of America
and what it stands for, not only to us, but also to the rest of the
world? Today, our flag and America's reputation is even more deeply
stained because of the unjustified Iraq War, elitist inequalities at
home, our attitudes toward global warming etc., and the "selfish
gain" these things seem to represent. Indeed, at this point, I feel
that America must make something of a "quantum leap" AWAY from
the sort of selfish militarism and elitism of these past years and at
least amongst us, leap TOWARD our ideals of equality and the pursuit of
happiness or a "more perfect union." Only then will we become
the above-mentioned beacon of light and only then will "selfish
gain no longer stain the banner of the free!" Finally, it is my
feeling that one symbolic start toward this more just and humane
American mind-set would be for us to adopt America the Beautiful
as our official national anthem in place of The Star-Spangled Banner.
Of course this would only be a beginning. We need to clean our hearts,
and in the process cross those artificial lines which have traditionally
kept Americans apart and suspiciously fearful of each other. Today there
is simply no excuse for not doing so. We have seen the destruction of
America's reputation abroad because of our selfish greed and militarism
in Iraq. We must therefore somehow disengage ourselves from this
conflict while simultaneously making PEACE in that region. Even more
important, we must recognize that all Americans are in the same boat and
we must make PEACE amongst ourselves before our boat becomes a sinking
ship and we ALL drown. Today, such "PEACE" is rapidly becoming
an absolute necessity for our survival as a nation. And this thought of
PEACE brings me to the conclusion of this medley. I close with
"Taps." This is the traditional bugle call, which signifies
"rest in peace." There are no official lyrics as such. But it
is most often used at the close of the day to signify peaceful rest or
sleep. It is also used at military funerals to signify "rest in
eternal peace.” And I believe it also suggests a future time when
finally we achieve peace on earth and goodwill toward men. 27
centuries ago these prophesies were penned: "Therefore the Lord
himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear
a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14) and later:
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government
shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of
Peace." (Isaiah 9:6). To me, as a Christian, these utterances
directly predict Jesus birth and the character of His mission and
earthly ministry. Yes, 700 years after the appearance of the above
prophesies, this child, "The Prince of Peace," WAS born and
through His life and teachings we are given inspiration, instruction and
wisdom on becoming the forgiving, peace-loving people of God. Many
(including Christians) today continue to resist these precepts (such as
forgiving our enemies, turning the other cheek etc.) with the excuse
that they are only ideals and in reality are impractical and impossible
to implement. I feel that if these principles WERE thusly impractical
and impossible to implement, that Jesus would not have GIVEN them to us.
The apparent truth is that one cannot reverse or change the mind-set of
others by using threats, violence, blame and non-forgiveness. Usually
such tactics only create fear, hatred, the desire for vengeance and
ultimately an escalation to more and greater threats and violence.
Therefore, to me it is a matter of faith. If we Christians, in faith,
trust our Lord in His example and teachings, the Holy Spirit will lead
us to PRACTICAL means of implementation. Thus, I believe that our
calling as Christians of faith is to progressively believe in and create
His Kingdom while on this earth. And this kingdom, by definition, MUST
be non-violent, forgiving and peaceful. A magnificent historic example
of this faith is the civil rights movement under the leadership of Dr.
Martin Luther King. Indeed from an early age, Dr. King had faith in
Christ's inspired teachings, but only after studying Mahatma Gandhi's
methods of non-violent civil disobedience as an educated adult, did he
have the tools and tactics to lead this movement and thus to peacefully
and effectively greatly diminish the scourge of "racial"
hatred, inequalities and segregation throughout America. In
conclusion, we Americans pride ourselves on our freedom and that our
democracy is government by the people and for the people. But is this
concept historically correct? In reality, all too often what we
have is majority rule and minority oppression. Certainly our
legacy of slavery, segregation and other "racial" inequalities
is a clear example of this. Although the majority of Americans consider
themselves as Christians, I feel that some Americans that have faith in
other religions and persuasions also profess similar beliefs in peace,
non-violence and forgiveness. And I believe the ideals of equality and
pursuit of happiness will only become a greater reality when we truly
apply these universal truths, religious teachings and inspiration to
find PEACEFUL solutions to the injustices and oppression that are now
blocking this greater reality or "more perfect union." And as
we progressively achieve this peace and good will among ourselves, our
example and resulting humane international policies should lead to
ever-greater world peace with the consequence that eventually Isaiah's
glorious prophecy shall finally be fulfilled "They shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any
more." (Isaiah 2:4) Perhaps then, as the music to
"Taps" implies, we shall ultimately be able to sleep
peacefully and pass away from this earth believing in, and knowing about
the "peace of God which passes all understanding." Complete
lyrics for The Star-Spangled Banner and America The Beautiful The
Star-Spangled Banner |