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Patriotism mit paxibum, ja?
By Glenn LehmanAfter staring at Gog and Magog for a century, Goshen blinked. Patriotism with peace? Ja.
Lehman
You know what bugs me about this issue of the national anthem at Goshen College? When music finally makes the news, who is the last person they ask? Right. A musician.
Plato said, forget the laws. Just let me control Athens’ music. So, all the power brokers are curtseying up and telling music what to do. Why elbow the sensitive art types out of the discussion? A musician could think of lots of creative solutions.
Wasn’t Goshen the home of the discovery that turning the other cheek is really a creative way to live under the thumb of an empire and bring it down? You say to the mob in the basketball coliseum, you want the national anthem? OK, but we follow it up with Indiana’s state song: “Oh, the moonlight’s fair tonight along the Wabash./ From the fields there comes the breath of new-mown hay./ Through the sycamores the candle lights are gleaming,/ On the banks of the Wabash, far away.”
While we’re at it and teary-eyed, how about a verse of “O Where Are Kings and Empires Now?” Stay standing, hold hands, and one verse of “You Are My Sunshine” before the ref blows the whistle.
While the music is playing, bring out the liturgical dancers and mime love and peace. The foreign students could stand in a peace sign formation.
Bill the Pentagon each time the national anthem is used. After all, Goshen puts the money into getting the crowd there. If some contractor can sell gas at $400 a gallon in Iraq, what’s $400 a pop for an event ad? Or, pass the hat during the anthem to pay for some decent harpsichord music at halftime.
Serious musicians could do Mozart-like tricks — play the tune backwards. Play it on kazoo. Half-tempo it like a dirge. Play it inverted. Jose Feliciano strummed a slow, bluesy rendition. Jimi Hendrix made it sound like war. The choir could do a Gregorian chant counter melody set to “et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.”
Set up karaoke booths at the entrance. Folks could duck in and belt out a couple of lines, but no group singing.
Another jaw-dropper: We’ll sing the anthem, but only verse three tonight. Holler out this whopper: “Their blood has wash’d out their foul footsteps’ pollution./ No refuge could save the hireling and slave/ from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.”
Or, Goshen could have just said, Nein.
Glenn Lehman is a church musician and director of www.harmonies.org.
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