Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for June 13, 2011

I uh… I wasn’t aware it was that hard. Then again, Christina Aguilera has trouble with it, so…

It’s been in print for a while now and then you add the Internet, I think you might be able to find the words somewhere, but the idea of America the Beautiful is appealing, too. Nobody knows all 4 verses of either song anyway.

I know how it goes… Oh say can see, by the dawn’s early light, da da daaa da da daaa da da da da da da da….

towerwarlock just answered my question – I was going to ask if it was taught in schools. My preps (k) are just learning the words to “Australians all let us rejoice …”

“Jose, can you see?”

To our friends in the Great White North: If your national symbol is a maple leaf, why is the first word of your national anthem “OAK”? :-)

@ashburn AMEN!!!

LOL xxx

He couldn’t find them on the Net?

Teach it? In Texas (and a lot of other Reich-wing states) it is mandatory every day. Like Thorax said in Chickweed, it is to teach children that “allegiance has a shelf life of 24 hours.”

If Baldo had been driven to learn the words, yeah, he could easily have looked them up. The victory referred to here, though, is the epiphany of finally understanding something you’ve heard countless times but taken entirely for granted. It finally “clicked” for him.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” is sometimes stirring to listen to, but it’s too difficult to sing. It’s not just that the notes run too much to the highs and lows, but the syntax is rough for modern speakers. If I had my druthers, I’d set Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land” as the national anthem, but it’s openly socialist and so would never fly…

A 60 yard line?

@towerwarlock“Actually they no longer teach it or the pledge in schools anymore because they might offend someone.”

Really? Can you give me a citation for that? Or do you always just make stuff up to support your right wing illusions?

Is there a movie about the battle? It would make required viewing for certain grade levels.

Not knowing the words to your national anthem by high school is NOT cool. These kids can repeat 10 minutes of rap word-for-word. It’s a matter of priorities.

I was always one of the band members playing the music accompanying the anthem, so I rarely had to sing the words.