Ithaca Prof: National Anthem, ‘God Bless America’ Are ‘Warmongering’ Songs

An Ithaca College professor says patriotic songs like the national anthem and “God Bless America” are “expressions of hyper-patriotism” and have no place at sporting events.

Stephen Mosher, who teaches “sports as political resistance” and “sport and popular culture” – both clearly very necessary exercises in higher education, penned an op-ed for The Ithacan bemoaning an American public who clamors to hear the national anthem at all of their sporting events.

The songs, Mosher says, have ““changed our ‘philosophy” about “what it means to be an American,” plunging us into a mode of “hyper-patriotism” that encourages “warmongering.”

“Sporting events don’t need a national anthem,” he claims. “Irving Berlin’s warmongering song “God Bless America” became our second, unofficial national anthem at the ballpark” only after the September 11th attacks, he continued, adding that NFL team owners are mostly to blame for the rise in national pride at sporting events.

“These men are the oligarchs — many are Trump contributors — who are simply protecting their investments,” Mosher says, before accusing these corporate overlords, and President Trump himself, of being “jingoists spreading lies.”

It may come as no surprise that Mosher is a Baby Boomer, conditioned in the 1960s to a sort of knee-jerk leftism. He speaks fondly of his time spent protesting the Vietnam war, though by his own admission, he made great strides against the mid-century fascists from a comfortable dorm room at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Desperate to relive his glory days, apparently, Mosher is inculcating an entirely new generation with his deep thoughts on America’s pastimes.

To solve the “problem” of patriotic displays, Mosher suggests that the American flag be banned from tee shirts, athletic uniforms and sports stadiums where its often treated in violation of the U.S. Flag Code (a set of prohibitions leftists rarely refer to when it comes to burning, not wearing, the Stars and Stripes, of course), and proscribing the national anthem from pre-game ceremonies.

Mosher is right in the sense that mandating players be on the field for the national anthem is a recent development. But banning the flag is a Catch-22: without kneeling to the flag, what, pray tell, would have inspired such academic prose as, “Trump’s attacks on ESPN’s Jemele Hill for expressing her own views, that he is and supports white supremacy, via her personal Twitter, reveals a leader whose skin is paper thin.”

It boggles the mind.