Two things we don't need: a National Anthem and a Pledge of Allegiance to a flag.

That’s right.  We stumbled along until 1930 without a National Anthem.  We made it all the way up to 1942 without an (official) Pledge of Allegiance.  Supposedly these symbols foster national unity.  Actually, they encourage the mob.

Refusal to take the Pledge of Allegiance was once held sufficient to exclude a child from public education, in the Supreme Court case of Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940), even over a religious objection.  Three years later, the Supreme Court recognized the injustice, and, actually, stupidity, of the Gobitis decision, and overruled it in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, one of the swiftest turnarounds in SCOTUS history.

My own view is that a just nation requires no pledges.  It is the unjust nation that requires loyalty oaths.  

The same is true of national anthems.  Certainly there can be no inherent good in having a national anthem.  Hitler had das Horst-Wessel-Lied, a song so evocative of Nazism that it is banned to this day in Germany.  About the same time the Soviet Union had The Internationale.  And if Trump wins in November, I guess we’ll have the Multinationale.)  Heck, even Oceania had Oceania, ‘Tis for Thee, and a damn catchy tune:

Strong and peaceful, wise and brave; Fighting the fight for the whole world to save. We the people will ceaselessly strive To keep our great revolution alive. Unfurl the banners, look at the screen; Never before has such glory been seen.

Sing along with me here (MiniTrue prefers it, comrade.)

Now, I ‘m not comparing the Star Spangled Banner to the Horst-Wessel-Lied, although it is perhaps interesting that the author of SSB was in fact a wealthy slaveowner who prosecuted abolitionists for “seditious libel”.  Land of the free, indeed! (offer may be void depending on your skin color.)

My point is that national anthems don’t necessarily improve a country.  Why should some official tune be considered the height of patriotic musical expression?  And shouldn’t new generations get a shot at having their own national anthem?  

Consider the magnificent We’ll Meet Again, made famous by Vera Lynn, but sounding great from many artists, such as Johnny Cash:

Or what of Tom Petty’s classic American Girl:

Well she was an American girl

Raised on promises

She couldn't help thinkin' that there

Was a little more to life Somewhere else After all it was a great big world With lots of places to run to Y

eah, and if she had to die

Tryin' she had one little promise

She was gonna keep

Or what about Simple Gifts, played at the 2009 inaugural.  Here is a beautiful version:

The point is, that by putting up one old and rather poorly written song as THE PATRIOTIC APPROVED TUNE does a disservice to the many genuinely moving and beautiful works.  Patriotism itself becomes weighed down with archaisms (do you know any of the other three stanzas to the SSB?)  

Same goes for the pledge of allegiance.  Don’t we pledge allegiance every day, all day, that everyday when we care for our children, our parents, carry out our duties at our jobs, help our neighbors, follow the law, pay our taxes (well, as best we can)?  Some Harry Potteresque incantation taught by rote to children is not going to make up for real loyalty, which is shown by deeds, not words.