The NAACP of California may be able to do what the British were not -- destroy the Star-Spangled Banner.
State NAACP leaders are calling for Congress to change the national anthem - calling the Star Spangled Banner one of the most racist, pro-slavery, anti-black songs in the American lexicon.
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Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner -- he was a slave owner -- and he also opposed giving slaves freedom.
The NAACP says they just want a song that does not disenfranchise part of the American population.
"It's racist; it doesn't represent our community, it's anti-black," state NAACP leader Alice Huffman told the CBS television station in Sacramento.
She was specifically referring to the song's third verse:
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
"This song is wrong; it shouldn't have been there, we didn't have it 'til 1931, so it won't kill us if it goes away," she told the television station.
The folks who are waging war on American traditions and history won't be content until they've bulldozed over every symbol of our great nation.
"Our flag and national anthem unite us as Americans," Republican lawmaker Travis Allen told the Sacramento Bee. "Protesting our flag and national anthem sows division and disrespects the diverse Americans who have proudly fought and died for our country. Real social change can only happen if we work together as Americans first."
If the NAACP is successful the question becomes who will be tasked with writing a new national anthem? Beyonce? Fifty Cent? Colin Kaepernick?
If it was up to me -- I'd go with Charlie Daniels or maybe Lee Greenwood -- or Reba.
