Through popular demand, our current national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner" may soon be replaced by a much more appropriate anthem, "The Ambiguity Song".
For nearly two centuries, the Star Spangled Banner has been a popular patriotic song, with its account of a victorious battle and how it augured well for an everlasting peace with independence and liberty. Yet, our modern-day struggles are more internal than external, more spiritual than physical, more permanent than punctuated, and more about fairness than liberty. Thus, our anthem leaves one wanting for a patriotic song that fills the imagination with overcoming these modern-day struggles and subsequently moving forward as a nation.
The "Ambiguity Song" could fill this void, as it expresses a belief that we will come together as one people and resolve the challenges we face, with dignity, fairness, and good humor. Here is the first verse:
All across the nation, people are getting together.
From many ideas, they form a single goal.
Some people are going to benefit and others got to sacrifice.
But everything seems to be up in the air at this time.
One day soon, it will all settle down.
But everything seems to be up in the air at this time.
But the second verse is not really suited for an anthem, as you can tell from reading it here:
I got some certain, special feelings for you.
I don't know if they're good or bad,
but I just might give you a call.
Everything seems to be up in the air at this time.
But we could just skip that verse. After all, we only sing the first verse of the Star Spangled Banner, even though it has four verses in total.
And then after changing our anthem, perhaps we should change our country's name to the "United States of Ambiguity". It would still be the "good ol' US of A", but instead of the "A" referring to where we are (which is common knowledge anyway), the "A" would refer to the uncertainty surrounding who we are and where we're going.
This could be our new flag:
It would still be the "good ol' Stars and Stripes" in the familiar colors of red, white, and blue, but instead of symbolically representing our jurisdictional heritage in a highly ordered design, it reflects a country in motion, with a bright future, but not without some intervening turmoil and trepidation along the way.
However, when saying the Pledge of Allegiance, you may want to look slightly askance at this new flag, if you have any tendency toward vertigo.
Speaking of the Pledge, here is one possible revision:
I pledge allegiance to the United States of Ambiguity,
for what it represents,
a subject of eternal debate,
but at its core,
a people,
supporting freedom and fairness for all.
For our national motto, I think we should go back to "e pluribus unum", which means "out of many, one", in order to highlight that we are one people, with common values and interests as well as common challenges that require us to come to some agreements about what to do about them.
But "one thing at a time" is another good motto to live by, and with that in mind, let us begin with campaigning for the "Ambiguity Song" as our new alternative national anthem.
Click HERE to sign this pledge at PledgeBank:
I will promote the "Ambiguity Song" as an alternative national anthem for the USA but only if 10 other people will do the same.
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The purpose of such a campaign is not mainly to popularize a new anthem, but rather, to generate a conversation centered around this new anthem and the ideas therein, with the hope being that as people start getting together to discuss not only the anthem but many other ideas as well, we will form common goals, followed by actions that move our country out of our present haze and forward into a bright future.
Of course, we will need more than 10 people signing a pledge to generate a national conversation. So, that is why the method for campaigning will consist of encouraging others to sign a new pledge which increases the requested signers to 20 people. And then, once 20 people have signed up, there will be a new pledge for 40 people, and so on. By doubling the number of signers each time, we will have reached over a million people after the 18th pledge, by which time the national conversation will have been well on its way.
Such lofty goals can seem so far away, but keep in mind that all great success begins with dreaming a great dream. Also, the campaign gives us another opportunity to express our ideals of freedom, fairness, fellowship, fraternity, fun, frivolity, and feckless foolishness. Well, I suppose that "fun, frivolity, and feckless foolishness" are less ideals than diversions that keep us in good spirits as we pursue our ideals. But surely such diversions are justification enough to begin this quixotic campaign. What do you say?