The second amendment states that I have the right to free speech and you can't make me feel bad for my opinion. Right?

I'm one of those people. I admit it without shame. The national anthem plays and that's it: I cry. Doesn't matter if it's the beginning of an Angels game or the gold medal ceremony for curling at the Olympics or a montage of soldiers with the anthem in the background. Actually, that makes me especially cry.

I love the 4th of July, too. I love the food and the fireworks and the cheesy patriotic TV specials (another guaranteed cry fest) and the parades and the red, white and blue clothes, and flag-lined neighborhood streets. I like Dixie cups shoved into chain link fences in flag shapes and I love "Support our Troops" bumper stickers.

That's right. Even a card-carrying Democrat can express her open patriotic fervor.

After 9/11, I stuck flags on my car and blared Lee Greenwood's Proud to Be an American at every opportunity. Some people say the song is jingoistic. I don't care.

Did you know that there's been a small movement to make that our new national anthem? I can't get behind an anthem that uses the word "ain't" (now matter how well it reflects our current cultural language habits). And well before that there were rumblings about making our anthem "America the Beautiful" or even "My Country Tis of Thee."

It's been said IN THE PAST that I don't adjust to change well. And in that PAST, the idea of changing our anthem seemed down right heretical. Make my eyeballs twitch-curl my toes in a bad way-set my teeth on edge HERETICAL.

But.

But.

Let's consider it. Really consider it. NO knee-jerking.

To be fair, we only ever sing the first verse of our anthem so let's compare apples to apples. Or being as this is a patriotic pursuit, let's compare apple pies to apple pies.

We'll start with "The Star Spangled Banner." (Just a note, the title alone is pretty fantastic imagery when you stop to think about it.)

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Does it capture the spirit of America? This war torn past, this dawn of hope breaking after a night of brave soldiers digging in and defending liberty? That last line about the land of the free and the home of the brave is pretty good stuff. And yet...

Is an ode to our flag. . . is that what we're all about? Does our flag tell the whole story? Does the song really circumscribe all we are into its lyrics?

Then we've got America the Beautiful.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

Yes, we have pretty countryside. But to say it sums us up? That's sort of like having a story with only a setting and no conflict or characters. It's not a story at all. So I vote. . .no. Conditionally. We'll come back to this one in a minute. The best stuff isn't in the first verse.

And then there's this final choice:

My country,' tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From every mountainside
Let freedom ring!

I know some of you will completely ignore my right to speak freely without being contradicted (I learned that right in civics class) and pitch rocks at me in the comment box, but although it lacks the majesty of our current anthem both in imagery and musical composition, the CONTENT of the lyrics. . .

I think hits a little closer to what we're about. It's a simpler song, little more than a ditty, maybe. I don't know. I'm kind of on the cretin side of musical education. But the words, though simple, are right. They are about our country as a whole, not just our flag. It's about our love of freedom.

But.

I don't think I can vote for it.

You know what I think would make the best anthem of all? Let's go back to "America the Beautiful" but move to the second and third verses. These are the words that I think tell who we, as a nation are, the words that best memorialize all of our greatest bits:

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness! America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

I have never made it through the third verse. I just can't. I love it.

Happy Independence Day, everyone. Be safe and happy.