What does the good secular humanist or atheist do during this song?

Nothing, because a good atheist treats it like any other song or artwork prominently featuring a fictional character. A bad atheist whines about it.

artwork

That's really stretching the definition of the term there.

Yes, but they didn't start playing "A Boy Named Sue" or "Popeye the Sailor Man" because of 9/11, and strangers never yell at other strangers for not taking off their hats for those songs. And if they did play "Popeye," the police would let you walk whenever you chose to walk during it, even before the finitch.

It seems like your problem is more with the patriotic than the religious aspect.

I am a Methodist minister and a Washington Nationals fan. I was there on Opening Day in 2005 at old RFK Stadium, and I try my best to plan my summer around Nats home games. I have only one issue with the ballpark experience, and it’s not with the beer prices. It’s with “God Bless America.” [...] I don’t want to come off as anti-American if I remain seated. I stand for the “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the acknowledgment of returning soldiers, and for “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” [...]

More important, though, I’m concerned that this is a myopic way to exercise faith. I imagine that the God I believe in isn’t interested in dispensing special nationalistic blessings. (Or, perhaps more to the point, blessings for our bullpen, error-free fielding and sufficient run support.) [...]

At a ballgame, where most of us have come to root for the Nats, it just doesn’t fit. We shouldn’t make a grand assumption that we’re all of one belief. The one thing that we do, in fact, have in common is the love of baseball. It’s a powerful, communal thing when we cheer together — even if we’re cheering for opposite teams. Yes, this even applies to Phillies fans.

My problem is that its a crap patriotic song.

TSSB, the first stanza, anyway, is 10x the song, and 1000x more appropriate after 9/11.

At a ballgame, where most of us have come to root for the Nats, it just doesn’t fit.

What does the good secular humanist or atheist do during this song?

TSSB, the first stanza, anyway, is 10x the song, and 1000x more appropriate after 9/11.

I'd much rather hear them play the fourth stanza of TSSB than GBA. Much more appropriate after 9/11, as well.

What I have a problem with is the pledge of allegiance. Why do they have kids say it every day at school? Why do my city's councilmen and mayor recite it before every meeting? There's no expiration date on it, so you only need to say it once, until you renounce it.

the most beautiful national anthem in the world.

What I have a problem with is the pledge of allegiance. Why do they have kids say it every day at school?

What I have a problem with is the pledge of allegiance. Why do they have kids say it every day at school?

heh... I used to sit that one out starting in junior high school.

As for Jimi Hendrix (or Marvin Gaye, or Jose Feliciano, etc.) I'll take any good military band's non-vocal version of the SSB, or Robert Merrill's if you want a vocal version. I suppose that makes me a red diaper fascist, but whatever.

They still made your classes say it in junior high? They didn't have us do it past elementary school.

What I have a problem with is the pledge of allegiance. Why do they have kids say it every day at school?

They still made your classes say it in junior high? They didn't have us do it past elementary school.

Late in a game, I'll take almost any excuse to stretch my legs. I'd stand if they played "Me So Horny" during the 7th inning.

Late in a game, I'll take almost any excuse to stretch my legs.

The pledge of allegiance, on the other hand, is about as obvious a violation of the Second Commandment as they come.

Why not just ACT yourself, instead of always trying to SHOW everyone what you believe?

While he was growing up on the Lower East Side, she would say "God bless America" often, to indicate that, without America, her family would have had no place to go.[24] The Economist magazine wrote that by writing "God Bless America", Berlin was "producing a deep-felt paean to the country that had given him what he would have said was everything. It is a melody that still makes his fellow countrymen want to stand up and place their hands over their hearts."[25]

Why not just ACT yourself, instead of always trying to SHOW everyone what you believe?

Sorry frogs and commies, but Wales has you beat.

Berlin supported the presidential candidacy of General Dwight Eisenhower, and his song "I Like Ike" featured prominently in the Eisenhower campaign. In his later years he also became more conservative in his views on music. According to his daughter, "He was consumed by patriotism." He often said, "I owe all my success to my adopted country" and once rejected his lawyers' advice to invest in tax shelters, insisting, "I want to pay taxes. I love this country."[29]:80

Sorry frogs and commies, but Wales has you beat.

This, on the other hand, seems like it could be a fascinating discussion to me. I don't think it's precisely what you're getting at, but the politics of gesture and self-presentation I find endlessly interesting. Teasing out the differences between the "actual" self and the "performed" self is a fun (and possibly impossible) exercise!

Thank god you're here to tell us all who I really am. Otherwise nobody would have been capable of making up their own mind.

It's also a really bad song. The lyrics are forced ("white with foam" is really terrible) and the musical emphasis is in silly places.

Saying "nuh-uh, God roots for America, pal" ennobles that ####, it doesn't refute it.

Because the "God Bless America" stadium experience is all about meekness and humility.

Not the anthem, but I like this Welsh rugby song:

We don't wanna be,
Your enemy,

There is no distinction. The performed self is the only self. Anything else is mere theory and spin.

Meh. The Battle Hymn of the Republic is by far the best patriotic song that we have. Beats GBA and TSSB by a country mile. This Land Is Your Land is a close second.

I'm partial to the The Stars and Stripes Forever and Semper Fidelis

It's also lucky that few of you had to go through daily Bible recitations at the start of each day, which was a standard practice in every public school through the early 60's. When it was our turn to recite, we'd have our choice of selections, and for us non-believers it was always---always---the 117th Psalm, which is something like 30 words long. We were in and out in a New York minute.

For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should enjoy his work, for that is his lot; who can bring him to see what will be after him?

the best part was that the team that appropriated it had the league's dirtiest player in Bobby Clarke, the most egregious diver of all time in Bill Barber, and a collection of street thugs in hockey skates known as "the Broad Street Bullies."

God Bless America, indeed, lol

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?

More important, though, I’m concerned that this is a myopic way to exercise faith. I imagine that the God I believe in isn’t interested in dispensing special nationalistic blessings. (Or, perhaps more to the point, blessings for our bullpen, error-free fielding and sufficient run support.) [...]

At a ballgame, where most of us have come to root for the Nats, it just doesn’t fit. We shouldn’t make a grand assumption that we’re all of one belief. The one thing that we do, in fact, have in common is the love of baseball. It’s a powerful, communal thing when we cheer together — even if we’re cheering for opposite teams. Yes, this even applies to Phillies fans.

I'm the first socialist communist peacenik anti-establishment your-mob-is-lame type to sit out patriotic displays, and even speak out against them, jingoistic or not; but I have to say this particular battle on this particular battleground is not even worth my fight or my time. Or anyone's, IMO, but I suppose that's up to them.