AMERICA THE MINDLESS:
RIGHT-WINGERS DEFEND A SONG THEY LOVE,
THOUGH IT WAS WRITTEN BY A WOMAN THEY HATE

When one hears the classic song begin: "O, beautiful, for spacious skies..." it is usually meant to be a moment of great pride and joy. More recently, however, the American ballad has spawned a whirlwind of social inequality and distaste for integration of all people. The song, first published as a poem in 1895, is undoubtedly one of the most popular patriotic anthems. During the Super Bowl 2014, a commercial aired for the first time, and the world heard a version of "America the Beautiful" like never before.

 
"AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL" [COCA-COLA AD]

BACKLASH FROM OFFENDED SPEAKERS OF "AMERICAN"

In terms of social media, the public reactions to the commercial led to an eruption of stupidity and childishness. On the social platform Twitter, the hashtag #SpeakAmerican made its way to the list of top trends, showing just how widespread the hatred is (not to mention the country's educational performance; we speak English, not American).

Politician and ex-Fox News contributor Allen West gave one of the most enraging yet laughable responses to the Coke ad, one that completely sums up the collective mind of right-wings towards equality and progress in general (Orlando Sentinel). At first, West said, he thought he was watching a patriotic commercial. But then, as West recalls, the unthinkable happened: “Then the words went from English to languages I didn’t recognize. Now, I know the politically correct thing is to foster multiculturalism — working really well in Europe — but we should remember the words spoken by President Teddy Roosevelt.”  He then proceeded to elaborate on an ignorant point made by the late president that all immigrants to the United States should learn English within their first five years of living in the country, and if not, they should leave the country (Free Republic). Seems as though West and his right-wing extremist pals have a lineup of great American role models to learn their views from. However, they all seem to be missing a huge point in their weirdly-proud argument for the English language: English was derived from a set of dialects from other countries, specifically Britain and the Germanic people (Wikipedia). Nothing more American than taking another country's idea and turning it into something else, right?

CONSERVATIVE, RELIGIOUS PROPAGATION OF GAY HATRED

Aside from the language issue, there was an overwhelmingly negative reaction to the commercial's openness to multiple sexualities. This is a brainless outrage powered by complete delusion. The people most fired up about the decision on Coke's behalf to include a happy gay couple in the commercial probably think they're great heroes for defending such loving, holy beliefs. Oh, the right-wingers must have forgotten: the writer of "America the Beautiful" was a lesbian. They really should have done some research before defending a song that apparently, given its origin, defies their heterosexual beliefs! The woman who penned "America the Beautiful" represents a nightmare for the right-wing elite: an intelligent woman with a voice, who shared her life lovingly with another woman. With their aggressive stand against homosexuality, wouldn't they believe that including a song written by a lesbian in American tradition is peddling homosexual propaganda?

KATHERINE LEE BATES: LESBIAN AUTHOR OF AN AMERICAN BALLAD

Katharine Lee Bates, an American writer, was a graduate of Wellesley College in the class of 1880. She eventually returned to the college to teach as an English instructor (Biography). An avid writer, Bates first wrote her patriotic poem in 1893. In 1985, her poem "America the Beautiful" was finally published in a newspaper called The Congregationalist. The words to Bates' poem were joined with music and turned into the song we all know today (Harvard Square Library). The song became a very popular choice for church hymnals, including Sunday school songbooks. If the churches then knew of Bates' sexual orientation, would they have still been just as keen as including her song as a favorite hymn?

When Bates was teaching at Wellesley, she met a woman named Katharine Coman. From that point, the women entered a relationship that lasted for 25 years (Gay Heroes). It has never been confirmed if the relationship between Bates and Coman was sexual, though it is described as a romantic friendship. In her time, the relationship between herself and Katharine Coman was considered a "Boston marriage," defined as a loving, devoted relationship between two women living together (Wikipedia). Both women found great success while instructing as Wellesley. Bates rose to become the chair of the English department, and Coman became the chair of the economics department before moving up to the role of Dean of the college. They were two successful women who shared a life of love together, but their happiness took a turn for the worse when Coman was diagnosed with cancer in 1912 (Isle of Lesbos). Bates cared for Coman during her illness, and after her loss in 1915, she was deeply heartbroken. After publishing a series of poems relating to Coman entitled Yellow Clover in 1922, Bates continued to teach at Wellesley until her retirement in 1925.

BATES' LYRICS OF HOPE LOST IN TODAY'S WORLD OF LIES

Bates once commented about the success of her song, stating “That the hymn has gained, in these twenty odd years, such a hold as it has upon our people, is clearly due to the fact that Americans are at heart idealists, with a fundamental faith in human brotherhood." One can only imagine what Bates' reaction might be to the current outburst of American hatred for one another. It is no coincidence that the sexual orientation of the writer of one of America's most famous songs is not exactly common knowledge. The public school systems wouldn't dare dream of teaching the origin of one of America's proudest songs, seeing as it may actually lead to children being taught to recognize more than one type of sexuality as normal. A conservative, non-comprehensive education system blended with an army of narrow-minded, supposedly "Christian" politicians and a conservative media leave little room for factuality.

Would the right-wing reactions to Coca-Cola's commercial have been less negative if they truly knew the author behind "America the Beautiful"? If Bates wrote and published the song in today's world, would its rise in popularity have been thwarted by the faulty religious right? Though gay rights have come a long way, there is still a dangerously long road to travel before mainstream acceptance - or even safety - is long-lasting.

RELEVANT SOURCES AND ARTICLES

Katharine Lee Bates (Wikipedia)

Katherine Lee Bates (Biography)

Katherine Lee Bates (Songwriters Hall of Fame)

"America the Beautiful," 1893 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)