Indiana College Shelves "Star-Spangled Banner" in Favor of "America the Beautiful"

I'd love to see a militaristic college change their song to "Hitler Had Only One Left Ball."

This was supposed to be a reply.

I, for one, am outraged! "America the Beautiful" was inspired by a visit to Pikes Peak. It has absolutely no bearing on the way people live in flatland places like Indiana or Illinois. We're being marginalized in favor of people with fixations on interesting topography. Meanwhile, we're surrendering the chance to hear such beautiful renditions of our anthem as those sung by Rosanne Whateverherlastnameis at baseball games.

(And yes, there is a bit about gleaming cities in the third verse, but those cities are alabaster. The overall impression of Chicago's skyline, thanks to the two tallest buildings, is black. This is a Manhattan verse in a Colorado song.)

So "Amber waves of grain" means mountains?
Or " the fruited plain"
I don't think so.

And the "alabaster cities' means the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, where almost all the buildings were white plaster, The Great White City was its nickname.
It was written in 1895, most buildings here were limestone [off white] or terra cotta [white].

Deny the truth all you want. The song originates from an 1895 poem called "Pikes Peak," for God's freakin' sake. That "fruited plain" and those "amber waves of grain" were in central Colorado at the foot of the Front Range. They were what Katherine Lee Bates saw from the summit.

And do you really want to embrace yet another homage to the White City, which hasn't existed for 117 years? Is that what Chicago is? You might as well tout us as home of the World Champion Chicago Cubs.

Open your eyes, Scooter!!!

And everything at the foot of the Front Range is flat!
I've been there, you look west, mountains, look east, it's as flat as Illinois.
All I said was, alabaster meant the White City. As it was written in 1895 & she died in 1929, Porter never saw our current black buildings!

And everything at the foot of the Front Range is flat!

Exactly! She was standing on a mountain 14,000 feet above sea level, looking down on flat land at least 7,000 feet lower. Basically, the very nature of the song is to say that flat land is beneath her. It's something to be looked down upon. The glory of the nation, the song says, is that there are purple mountains where you can go to escape the flatness.

And yes, in 1895 the White City might have been something worth celebrating. I can even understand that in 1929, as I live in a city still celebrating a 25-year-old Superbowl. But it's been 117 years. The grandchildren of the people who saw the White City are dead. If we are to have an anthem, it should be an anthem for the here and now, not the dead and gone.

Now you're being ridiculous as the Star Spangled Banner is a poem celebrating something 198 years ago.

And the grandchildren of those that saw the White City are still alive. They could be as young as their late 40s.

Now you're being ridiculous ...

If you're sincere in your use of the word "now," I don't know that you get what I'm doing here.

The Star Spangled Banner is a general poem, describing the events in a manner that could be used to describe similar events over the entire history of the U.S. Hell, the words could be made to fit the events of September 11.

As for age, lets say you had a 10-year-old kid in 1893. That kid had children at 30, in 1913. That kid had children at 30, in 1943. This grandchild would currently be 68, and would, more importantly, have no personal memory of the White City. In order for the grandchild to be in their late 40s, they'd have to be the products of multi-generational late-life childbirths.

No, you're forgetting that a man can father children well into his 80s & some do.

You're assuming everyone is female & stops reproducing before 50!

Oh, sure, it can happen ... at least that's what I tell myself when I cry myself to sleep at night. But how often does it happen? For every Larry King who pulls it off, you have millions of Hugh Hefners who muck it up. And what's the likelihood of it happening two generations in a row?

Over 26 million people went to the fair. Obviously there were multiple visits, so maybe 15 million individual visitors. Figure that the youngest with actual memories of it were 10, meaning born in 1883. The women would have been having children until about 50 or 1933 at the latest. Their daughters would have been fertile until about 1960 on average. Which means that maybe half of the grandchildren of those that went to the fair are the Baby Boomers of whom there are 76 million total, which eliminates your claim that the grandchildren of the fairgoers are all dead. Figure 25 million boomers are fairgoers children, minimum.

Now if you assume the men were fertile until they were 70, which isn't uncommon, due to May-December marriages, the fairgoer's children would have been born as late as 1950, which means that the grandchildren could have been born as late as 2000, which means their are a few grandchildren of the male fairgoers are in grammar school today!

So it's easily possible to happen two generations in a row.

Well, I think we know who swiped all the boner pills now, Scooter . . .

"If you're sincere in your use of the word "now," I don't know that you get what I'm doing here."

Now that's funny.

P.S. The Star-Spangled Banner is about a battle in a war we lost and that the White House burned down. Sure, we torched York, ON, but who gives a shit about Toronto? The anthem should be America, Fuck Yeah by the South Park guys. That'd sound GREAT at the Olympics.

Now, now, boys, this is a nice Menno-Hippie-peace-loving thread, be nice.

I'm so amused at the amount of press GC is getting over this. They only played the anthem a handful of times, starting last year, after a WHOLE lot of debate. America the Beautiful fits MUCH better with the Mennonite Church's beliefs. And yet I saw some people on the Trib site getting really angry about this. Doesn't the freedom that was fought for also include religious freedom? (Fun fact: During WWII, conscientious objectors from the historic peace churches were put to work in the Civilian Conservation Corps, fought fires, dug ditches, did a lot of hard work -- so don't tell me they didn't do anything for their country.)

*Disclaimer ... my parents and the vast majority of my dad's side of the family are all GC grads.

The Star Spangled Banner is a wretched poem about a single incident in the War of 1812 & is set to the tune of a 1775 English drinking song called "Anacreon in Heaven". The melody is also unsingable by most people, even professional singers have problems with it.

America the Beautiful is a song that speaks to all of the country & is easily sung by anyone.
We need to change the national anthem to it

Well, America The Beautiful is a far better song (and for a religious school like this, it does mention a supernatural being).