Replacing the Star Spangled Banner as the National Anthem

One thing we could do, if Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein were still alive, would be to commission them to create a new Anthem. After all, for The Sound of Music, the pair created "Edelweiss" which 73% of the American public believe to be the Austrian national anthem! But, alas, that option is not available.

There are, however, a wealth of worthies for the title of national anthem, singable, less bellicose, and, frankly, more in tune with today's America.

America the Beautiful

Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America! God shed his grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.

Oh beautiful, for pilgrims' feet

Whose stern, impassioned stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness!

America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw;

Confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law!

Oh beautiful, for heroes proved

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved

And mercy more than life!

America! America! May God thy gold refine,

'Til all success be nobleness, and ev'ry gain divine!

Oh beautiful, for patriot's dream

That sees, beyond the years,

Thine alabaster cities gleam

Undimmed by human tears!

America! America! God shed his grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea!

America the Beautiful was written in 1893 by Katharine Lee Bates as a poem inspired by a cross country train trip from Boston to Colorado. The poem as set to a number of music compositions over the years but, by 1910 or so, the melody generally accepted was a hymn by Samuel Ward, a church organist in Newark, New Jersey. It is his melody that has become the most popular today. The several references to "God" may pose a concern in some quarters, but there are allusions to the Deity in The Star Spangled Banner, albeit the language would not be understood by modern Americans for the most part:

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation!

God Bless America