Fourth of July Weekend

I just learned this morning that the red, white, and blue rocket popsicle was first introduced in 1955. Yummy.

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Regina Lankenau is a columnist and member of the Chron E-Board. On this eve to our Fourth of July, Regina has an outstanding take on our national anthem in the lead column of the Chron opinion page. Here is the headline:

I’m Mexican. Here’s why I love the U.S. national anthem. | Opinion

Here is from her piece today:

It was the blistering summer of 2010, and my family had just moved to the United States after living abroad in Europe. We would have returned to our home country of Mexico, but the war on drugs had spilled into city streets. Daily kidnappings, shootouts and public killings had turned unthinkable violence mundane.

Instead, we moved to the border city of Laredo, a place I’d only ever visited in weeklong jaunts to see my cousins and grandparents. Now it was my home too. And, I figured, what better way to fit in than to learn the national anthem of my adopted country?

So I did what I always used to do to memorize lyrics: I printed them out, carefully slipped the paper into a plastic sleeve and taped it on my shower wall. (You can imagine my family’s water bill.) All summer long, I serenaded my poor grandparents in their backyard. Bronzed and barefoot on the warm terra cotta patio, I channeled Whitney, belting my little heart out. If I could just reach that soaring, melismatic “free,” I thought, I’ll have made it. I’ll have done the impossible.

I didn’t know, then, that many Americans aren’t actually fans of their own anthem. The tune is famously difficult, for one. Even Whitney Houston prerecorded her 1991 rendition. And the words, while deliciously florid and exciting to me (Star-spangled! Ramparts! Gallantly streaming!), aren’t exactly easy to remember. In fact, one poll from 2004 found that nearly two out of three Americans didn’t know all the words to the anthem. Of those claiming to know all the words, only 39% could name what followed “whose broad stripes and bright stars.”  

Others take issue with a song that exalts bombs and rockets. Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics during the War of 1812, after watching Baltimore’s Fort McHenry withstand a brutal British bombardment. 

Still others don’t like the U.S. anthem because, simply put, they don’t see themselves in it. For many Black Americans especially, Key’s words ring hollow. Not just because they were written by a slave owner — a fact reflected in that problematic third verse — but also because they’re sung by a country that too often has denied them the right to participate in those ideals. It feels far more sincere to sing the hopeful, surging hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (also known as the Black national anthem), or even “My Country, ’Tis of Thee,” whose words are woven into Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. 

I get it. Singing — full-throated and proud — about liberty, about American triumph and faith in the country’s enduring strength, can feel naive. 

It seems to say, rah-rah-USA-but-ignore-the-painful-parts. Ignore the lasting legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, the devastating wars and foreign interventions in democracy’s name. Ignore the divisive present, the bombastic saber-rattling abroad and the siege on American freedoms and institutions at home. For some, earnestly performing patriotism doesn’t just feel uncomfortable. It feels like blind loyalty, idolatry even. A twisted patriotism that is used to exclude, not include people.  

But what I’ve always loved about the American anthem is that it’s fundamentally a question — and it’s always been a question. Where other anthems assert with bluster and bravado, “The Star-Spangled Banner” has the aplomb to ask its people whether the flag yet waves. 

The real question, to me, is an aspirational one: Is this still the land of the free? Are we still the home of the brave? More importantly, do we still want it to be?

Go check out her entire anthem take here: The American national anthem has flaws. Why I still choose to sing it.

I have said before that I always sing our national anthem. I don’t put my hand over my heart. Singing it is good enough. When I watch it performed on the flat screen before a sporting event, I always hope that the performer gets through it without a flub.

I am a fan of the anthem. Always have been. I am sure we will be hearing our national tune a few times over the next few days this weekend.

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250 years of America is a big deal in my book. It is too bad MAGA hijacked the events in DC. Understandably, a bunch of folks are staying home.

H-Town has plenty of Fourth of July action this weekend. There will be three games at Daikin Park and Freedom Over Texas tomorrow. Various local municipalities have fireworks shows. If you are lucky, you can go check out Canada and Morocco at Houston Stadium. Or you can stay home and watch patriotic flicks and the New York City fireworks on NBC, all on the flat screen.

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Sunday’s game has an unusual 2:30 pm start. NBC will handle most MLB games on “Star-Spangled Sunday” on NBC, NBC Sports Network, and Peacock. The Astros versus Rays will get the 2:30 pm slot.

The featured photo is my lid for this weekend at Daikin Park. Yep, I picked one up at the Team Store a few days ago.

Have a safe and fun Fourth of July Weekend.