Indiana college not playing the national anthem sparks debate

[onager]

Visiting fans who attend a basketball game, or any sporting event, at Goshen College this season may be surprised by the patriotic song they hear over the loudspeakers minutes before tipoff.

The Northern Indiana school has decided to play "America the Beautiful" prior to sporting events instead of the "Star-Spangled Banner" because the lyrics better fit the pacifist ideals of a Mennonite campus whose motto is "Healing the World, Peace by Peace."

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Indiana-college-not-playing-the-national-anthem-?urn=ncaab-wp4428

I mostly posted this so y'all can enjoy the Yahoo comments posted from our flag-waving fellow Americans.

It's always great to see a lot of bragging about "our freedoms," followed by a demand that "our freedoms" include marching in lockstep with the majority. Or get your ass out.

And I say that as a descendant of umpteen veterans, including one who fought in the Revolutionary War. And being a USMC veteran myself.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Thank you for your service...

I like "America the Beautiful" so much more.

Better still would be "This Land is My Land, This Land is Your Land", which we sang regularly in fist through fourth grades!

:patriot:

[struggle4progress]

2. ... We are committed to build the “peaceable kingdom” by practicing loving kindness, restoring

justice, practicing anti-racism, loving our enemies and advocating for the dispossessed. We renounce the oppressive, violent destructive powers of this world ...
Core values
http://www.goshen.edu/aboutgc/values/

[Skip_In_Boulder]

3. Goshen College is not a real big fan of nationalism.

[kestrel91316]

4. Mennonites and Amish as a rule aren't. Goshen is a Mennonite college.

[happyslug]

5. Why NOT play the "National March" instead???

I know this is a Mennonite Collage but no one knows the Words to "Stars and Stripes forever" (Sousa did write some, but no one ever sings them). The only "words" to "Stars and Stripes Forever" that I ever heard was "Be kind to your web footed friends" and "Be kind to your fair weather friends".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_and_Stripes_Forever


"Be Kind to Your Web-Footed Friends" words are as follows:

Be kind to your web footed friends,
For one duck may may look like another,
But to the one that she loves,
She is the one, she is the one and only mother.


As to "Be kind to your fair weather friends" the words I remember went as such:

Be kind to your fair weather friends,
for when you need them they be far away
Be kind to them now, for in a pinch they be loooong gone.

[dmallind]

6. They can do as they wish within the law, for whatever reason

No skin off mine if they played "Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam" before games and had cheerleaders dressed as Dutch milkmaids. It's a private institution, and traditions about played songs have no force of law - and are like many "traditions" of nationalism quite surprisingly recent - within the lifetimes of millions of living Americans.