Torn about the National Anthem



How should I react to the national anthem? I don't think I'll ever have a set thought on this.

Whenever I am at a ball game, I await the national anthem. And each time, my feelings are torn as to how I should feel when I hear the singer belt out all the words from "Oh say" to "the brave".

On one hand, I listen to the song and think about all my relatives and people close to me who have made the choice to join the military and represent the flag while in many cases risking their lives on a daily basis. Whenever my cousin Tony was overseas in Iraq and I was at a game, I'd be fighting back tears thinking about what he was doing at that time and how he was while the anthem was being played.

I'm pretty sure the above scenario is how I should take the anthem, but there's a part of me lately that looks at the anthem/flag with a little skepticism. What our flag represents now on a world scale gets me thinking about our country's birth in separating ourselves from colonial rule and how what our country used to be (with the establishment of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights) is merely a blip on the radar of what our country is now. Rights being taken away on a daily basis under the guise of "security", cameras everywhere spying on our every move (whether it be on foot or in our cars). And everytime we vote for a president (Democratic or Republican), they're basically the same war mongering fools who waste our tax money on these endless wars.

The above doesn't cross my mind verbatum as I listen to the anthem, but I do have a sense of doubt as to what the flag meant when it was originally stitched versus what it represents now.

Perhaps I shouldn't over-think this and just continue to think of all my friends and family who fought for our country when I hear the anthem at games. Hell, most people probably don't even bother listening to the anthem in the way I do. I can't help it though.

I'll probably continue to be torn on how I should truly react to our nation's anthem at our National Pastime. As long as I'm going to see a good baseball game after the song is sung, then at the end of the day, that's what I will likely remember.