There’s a special place in my heart for this song, a special dark place! While I like the musicality of this song I loathe the lyrics because they express an idealism that, in America today, is completely false. So, what I’m going to do is break down these lyrics and weigh them against the reality of life in America today and to a large extent, far into the past as well.
“Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away.”
Does the flag still stand for freedom? I would argue that, while in the minds of many Americans it does, most people are not looking at the reality of their situation. The idea that people who are forced to have the fruits of their labors taken from them under the threat of violence are NOT free but enslaved. And of course, Americans are enslaved in so many other ways. Just what can we do that we don’t have to ask the government permission for first? Can you drive a car without their permission? Can you get a job without their permission? Can you start a business without their permission? Can you make certain changes to your own property without their permission? Can you practice medicine without their permission? Can you buy a house without their permission? Can you keep all the money you earn or do they give you permission to keep a percentage? Can you dispose of your own property without their permission? And on and on it goes. So Yes, Mr. Greenwood. They can take that away and they did.
You can’t even put whatever you want into your own body, not even raw milk! Anti-drug laws, FDA regulations, FCC regulations and the thousand and thousands of other regulations are not a mark of freedom. You are owned by the government is the long and short of it.
“I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.”
Two points here: I’d be interested in knowing who those ‘men who died’ refers to in the mind of the author. Is he referring to the men and women of the American Revolution or is it a reference to all the fallen of all the US wars? Regardless of which it is, I think most people think of it as the latter and the sad fact is that all of the US wars since the Revolutionary War, were and are wars of aggression. There is nothing noble about the wars America as started or been involved in since their war for independence. Yes, even WWI and WWII. US involvement is what turned these, mostly European conflicts into world wars. Remember what the founders and Washington said about staying out of Europe’s wars?
The second point is a philosophical one. Men dying does not give rights “to me”. They may be fighting to be free of those who impinge upon their rights but Rights, as Thomas Jefferson put it, are inalienable and we are Endowed with them by our creator, whoever you think that is. And again, no soldiers in any US war since the war for independence have fought for our freedom or the preservation of the Constitution or any other such patriotic ideal.
“Well, there’s pride in every American heart,”
While there’s certainly nothing wrong with being proud of one’s heritage and the place of their birth, it behoves each of us to ask, “Am I proud of my country today?” Today, I can’t say that I’m proud to be an American when I consider how we have allowed our government to become the tyrannical, imperialistic entity that it is. Singing songs like Lee Greenwood’s song and not recognizing that it doesn’t comport to the reality of our situation seems just plain weird to me. We should be singing songs of lamentations if anything at all. Pounding our chests and thinking we are the kings of the earth because of the might of our military, is in no way noble or something to be proud of in my mind. We should be renting our clothes and repenting of our support for a government that has turned us into tyrants, like those we claim to hate. But NO, we celebrate our militarism and tyranny by calling it Patriotism and waiving a flag that doesn’t remember the ideals it once stood for; not only independence for our country but for its individuals, individuals that are free from the imperialistic, nanny-state that is now the US government.
I’m sorry but “Proud To Be An American” is a song that I find nauseating because it engenders a false patriotism and purports ideas that are more or less, just propaganda and ignore reality.
The US government is an interventionist government on every level and pervades our lives on a daily basis whether or not Americans recognize it. And they intervene in the business of every other nation on the planet, pushing their weight around because They CAN, believing they are doing the Lord’s work! The question is, who is their lord?
And finally, “God bless the U.S.A.” To which I would ask, WHY would He? First of all, God is not blessing the nations good or bad. According to the Bible, God is not dealing with nations in the ‘dispensation of the grace of God’ but rather he is working through his Church, ( a called out assembly of believers ) to be ambassadors to share the Gospel of Christ with individuals that they might also believe in the all-sufficient work of Christ upon the cross, having paid for the sins of the world.
America is a clearly a depraved nation so even if God was “blessing” nations I can see no reason why he would bless America.
On a side note: America being at Israel’s beck-and-call does nothing to get God’s favor either since the nation called Israel, over there in the Mideast, is NOT God’s Israel. So anyone who calls themselves a Christian should get that notion out of their head.