Or - Change the National Anthem to "G-d Bless America"

by Nate Segal

"G-d Bless America" by Irving Berlin is my second preference for replacing "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthem of our country.

• The tune is also catchy and easy to sing like "This Land Is Your Land."
• Irving Berlin, the song's composer, was a first-generation European Jewish immigrant, having been born in what was then Russia.  See Berlin's biography in Wikipedia. Most Americans * are descendants of immigrants, and the face of America again today is increasingly the face of an immigrant.
• Like "This Land Is Your Land", the number of renditions seems almost endless.

The down side of the song is that the expression "G-d Bless America" is often misunderstood as meaning that G-d always blesses America no matter what the nation does. Actually, this expression is a form of prayer or petition asking, "May G-d bless America." I distinctly remember that President Obama said this phrase — May G-d bless America — at the time of his inauguration. Knowing how well educated our president is, I felt at the time that President Obama was using the phrase in a way that would not be misunderstood.

Listen to Berlin sing this song >>

Photo of Irving Berlin from " Project GBA: The collected recordings of Irving Berlin’s, “God Bless America”

* Most Americans – I'm well aware that 1) many Americans are descendants of Indians, the first Americans; 2) the ancestors of Blacks were kidnaped in Africa and came here against their will; and 3) so many of us have no sense that our antecedents arrived here from faraway lands.