Somebody was complaining about the musical accompaniment to those seventh-inning stretches:
Dear @MLB, God Bless America does not "honor America". It forces ppl to pretend to be conservative Christians for 3 minutes. Please stop it. — Lance Mannion (@LanceMannion) September 1, 2013
Well, as it turns out, not only was Irving Berlin a great liberal, immigrant, non-Christian, and did I say great? composer, but GBA was specifically meant as an anti-fascist anthem:
“Two years ago I was in Europe. It was the time of the Munich conference. Democracies were kowtowing to dictators, and one wondered when grasping hands would be stretched farther. When I got back, Kate Smith wanted a song that would sort of wake up America. I sat down and tried to write one. I made several efforts, but everything I wrote was too definite. I had been too close to what had happened, and concrete events are not what I wanted to sing about. Suddenly I remembered the song I had laid aside twenty years before. I got it out and went over it and made a few changes and found it hit the nail on the head. It’s not a patriotic song, but rather an expression of gratitude for what this country has done for its citizens, of what home really means” (NY Times, 28.7.1940).
The changes included changing "Stand beside her/ And guide her/ To the right with a light..." to "Through the night..." because
In 1938 there was a right and a left and it had a different significance.
It still does! And "right" still rhymes with "night" and names something to be gotten out of. Please read the wonderful essay from which I stole this material to learn more about Berlin's commitment to the New Deal, to honoring the immigrant experience, and to the fight for racial integration (he composed the first song about lynching for Ethel Waters in 1933, and the cast of his 1942 show for the Army Emergency Relief Fund, performed by soldiers, was the only integrated unit in the US Armed Forces until Truman ended segregation in 1948). And next time you're watching a baseball game, remember that the God being invoked is not Reverend Robertson's.
