Stall Brook Elementary School in Bellingham, Massachusetts has a unique version of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.” Instead of having the kids sing “God Bless the USA,” they sing “We love the USA.” No God.
Parents began complaining – not about the original lyrics, but about the school’s obvious attempt to remove God from the song. The school responded not by restoring the song to its original form, but by removing the song altogether. The school told Fox 25 that its goal was to “maintain the focus on the original objective of sharing students’ knowledge of the US States, and because of logistics, will not include any songs.”
Lee Greenwood responded: “The most important word in the whole piece of music is the word God, which is also in the title ‘God Bless The USA.’ Maybe the school should have asked the parents their thoughts before changing the lyrics to the song. They could have even asked the writer of the song, which I, of course, would have said you can’t change the lyrics at all or any part of the song.”
But the schools would never do that – public schools exercise ultimate authority, but would never deign to acknowledge any higher authority, even in one of the most famous patriotic songs in American history.
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