How long is it going to go on?
Got to the seventh inning. Ready to stand and stretch. Sing "Take Me Out To the Ballgame." No, it doesn't make real sense -- we were already at the ballgame, after all -- but it's what you do at the midpoint of the seventh inning, and it's fun, and one of those few occasions when you get to burst out in song in public and nobody says anything about it or questions your sanity.
Except, no.
First we have to
Why, exactly?
Why now?
Why I don't get it:
1) We already begin each game with "The Star-Spangled Banner," which, as you may know, is our official National Anthem (and which, as you may know, turns 200 this year. Remember Fort McHenry? That was in 1814, gang) As the official anthem, it is the appropriate musical venue for taking off your cap, offering salute or hand over heart as appropriate to your station in life in the direction of the nearest flag, and maintaining silence (or more ideally, singing, although most public renditions of the song do not make that possible, serving instead as American Idol auditions). Other songs do not have that status. Why are we dishonoring our actual anthem by according these marks of official respect to a song which has no such status?
2) It's not very universal or inclusive. You don't believe in God? Or you have to urinate urgently? F**k you, stand still anyway or we're going to hurt you (just ask fans at Yankee Stadium). At the very minimum, "The Star-Spangled Banner" evokes a moment in our nation's history where its very survival was far more threatened than it is now.
3) It's really, deeply awful theology. Even after you've gone and recited a number of ways that God has clearly already blessed the particular bit of geography that ended up being "America," you still have the nerve to turn around and demand that God bless America (even though we continue to insist on desecrating all those blessings we just sang about for the sake of our mindless consumption)? Maybe act like you appreciate the blessings we've already received first before turning around and doing that.
4) (Baseball only) It busts a big hole in the fun of going to a baseball game. Football is made for militarization and indulges it rather frequently. Baseball is not. Trampling over the traditional joyful silliness of that seventh-inning stretch shatters all of the pleasures that are unique to baseball.
4a) Last night's incident tried to pretend that 4) above isn't so by doing the abrupt about-face of singing "Take Me Out To the Ballgame" right after GBA. So which one are we supposed to believe? The two do not go together, to the effect that neither one seems particularly sincere or intentional.
I'm fully aware that I'm probably alone on this. I don't care. It's gone on long enough, or too long. If you are somehow of the opinion that paying respect to our nation by singing the National Anthem before the game is even allowed to start is somehow not patriotic enough for you, I fear for your soul.
You want to convince me you're a "real patriot"? How about you don't desecrate the land for the sake of your own mindless consumption? How about let's not pretend that the blessings of being American are not reserved only for those who can afford them, or for those who belong to your political party? How about you don't pretend it's your business to tell God who God has to bless or must not bless?
Any of these would be a far more effective and meaningful display of patriotism than a redundant interruption of a baseball game.
No comments:
Post a Comment