{"id":964,"date":"2020-06-30T13:21:41","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T13:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/?p=964"},"modified":"2020-06-30T13:21:51","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T13:21:51","slug":"should-john-lennons-imagine-be-our-new-national-anthem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/?p=964","title":{"rendered":"Should John Lennon’s “Imagine” Be Our New National Anthem?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some people are demanding that we drop “The Star-Spangled Banner”<\/em><\/strong> due to its racist roots and replace it with “America, the Beautiful”<\/em><\/strong> or even “Imagine”<\/em><\/strong> by John Lennon<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FULL STORY:<\/strong>  Some people are calling for<\/a> “The Star-Spangled Banner”<\/em><\/strong> to be dumped as our National Anthem . . . because it’s tainted with racism<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among other things, composer Francis Scott Key<\/strong> was a known slaveholder who once said<\/a> that African Americans were, quote, “a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One suggestion is to replace the song with “Imagine”<\/em><\/strong> by John Lennon<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Hopefully NOT the version<\/a> sung by Gal Gadot and her friends.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why “Imagine”<\/em>?  One person says<\/a>, quote, “[It’s] the most beautiful, unifying, all-people, all-backgrounds-together kind of song you could have.”  Lennon didn’t have slaves, of course . . . but he wasn’t a saint<\/a> either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others say we could swap it out for “America the Beautiful”<\/em><\/strong> . . . which is more aspirational and unifying . . . and less militaristic . . . than the “Star-Spangled Banner”<\/em>.  An online petition<\/a> for that has been signed by more than 3,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(I don’t know if the submission deadline has passed, but has anyone considered “Party in the U.S.A.<\/a>“?)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some people are demanding that we drop “The Star-Spangled Banner” due to its racist roots and replace it with “America, the Beautiful” or even “Imagine” by John Lennon. FULL STORY:  Some people are calling for “The Star-Spangled Banner” to be dumped as our National Anthem . . . because it’s tainted with racism. Among other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dont-miss-this"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Getty_12242156706.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":966,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964\/revisions\/966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}