There is discussion calling for replacing the Star-Spangled Banner, since Francis Scott Key was a slave owner and since the third verse speaks ill of "the hireling and slave."
Few men or women are perfect. All have their flaws. No, it is not good that Francis Scott Key was a slave owner, but there remains much good that he did, and writing the Star-Spangled Banner is one of them.
Except for that third verse.
So, what do we do? Rid ourselves of the song? I say, Nay. Instead, remove that third verse. Or, rewrite it.
So, I took my shot at rewriting it. First, the way Key wrote it, it says:
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Rewriting it, the words now say:
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country, should leave them no more?
Their blood has washed out our foul footsteps' pollution
Till we confessed of the wrong, of making them hireling and slave
And freed them from terror of flight, and the gloom of the grave
So the star-spangled banner yet in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the freed blacks and the home of the brave.
ah just saw this--my comment on picking another patriotic song as national anthem would have been better placed here
ReplyDeleteI do like your rewriting of the verse though