Tank McNamara by Bill Hinds for August 20, 2018

Key was a proponent of slavery. For that reason alone, we should switch to America the Beautiful, as the national anthem.

For ‘sing-ability’ I’d opt for Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is My Land”

However, I “America The Beautiful” has always been my top pick for the National Anthem.

Count me as one of the Francis Scott Key haters !

How about “God Bless America?” Truely a stirring song, especially sung by Kate Smith.

It would be nice if we, like many other countries, mention the Country in our Anthem

The martial tone of “Oh say can you” is distasteful, anachronistic, and unnecessary; the music is unsingable without a trained voice (and just the right key, to boot); and the versification is awkward and clunky. The point about actually naming the country is good, too.

All in all, we’re stuck with a monument to bad taste and impracticality. Maybe that’s perfect for the immediate present, come to think of it, but a National Anthem should be more universal.

What about Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuire? Leave the first verse as is. Rewrite the second verse to be about global warming and the polluted oceans. Rewrite the third verse to be about school gun violence and the gun violence in Chicago. Rewrite the fourth verse, the finale, to be about Putin, Kim, and Trump.

“American Girl” by Tom Petty or GTFO.

The irony is that most of the people protesting African-American players kneeling for the anthem are usually to be found chatting on their phones, standing in line for beer/peeing, or laughing and joking with each other while said anthem is being played.

And count me in as another vote for the “Star Spangled Banner” NOT being the anthem of this nation.

No Tank, the emotional period is over. A lot of us just don’t watch the NFL any more and have gone to NCAA football.

I suppose Hugh Laurie’s song “America” from the old show “A Bit of Fry & Laurie” wouldn’t offend many and the lyrics are certainly easy enough to remember: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyHSjv9gxlE

Let’s just have everybody chant “USA! USA! USA!” for three minutes and call that our national anthem. It’s in everybody’s range, and it’s almost impossible to forget the words…

I love this. Let’s talk about what song to sing for a national anthem instead of a conversation about better police training and equal justice (instead of “just’us”).

I don’t care what you do during the Anthem, as long as you don’t make me stand and take off my hat for God Bless America during the 7th Inning Stretch.