Changing Our National Anthem

Making Guthrie’s song into the national anthem is a good idea. I’ve been sympathetic to the idea of replacing “The Star Spangled Banner” as the national anthem ever since I heard the idea expressed on “All in the Family” many years ago, but I wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of replacing it with “America the Beautiful.”

I don’t have anything against “The Star Spangled Banner,” mind you. I don’t have anything against “America the Beautiful,” either. I just think we ought to change the national anthem, and I would personally like to see it replaced with something that, on the one hand, couldn’t be objectionable to anyone while, on the other, wouldn’t be so watered-down that it wouldn’t be inspirational. “This Land Is Your Land” is the perfect sort of song if you think about it.

Just the other day, I saw Dale Evans on one of those Christian stations singing it. I let her finish before I turned (the channel).

Also, Guthrie was the sort of American who ought to have one of his songs as the national anthem. Pete Seeger said in a documentary that when the FBI came to ask him about the so-called communist conspiracy, Guthrie made up a song with, as I recall, the following words: “They said would I fight for my country/ I answered the FBI ‘Yea’/ I will point a gun for my country./ But I won’t guarantee you which way.”

RONALD WEBSTER

Long Beach