This will probably irritate the irritable, but sometimes, it's good to get rid of something that's been around since Hector was a pup, especially if Hector has turned into a mean old racist cur.
Of course, I'm talking about the official state song for our state. “Maryland, My Maryland” would seem to be on its way out, and no one will be performing it before the Preakness next month because the lyrics are thought by some to be racist.
Over at Pimlico Race Course, where they will run the Preakness before a crowd estimated at 00,000, they're saying the October 3 race day will come and go, and no one will have to hear lyrics that describe Abraham Lincoln as a "despot" and Northerner as "scum." Written as a poem by James Ryder Randall in 1861, the foul ditty opens with “The despot’s heel is on thy shore,” a reference to Lincoln, and goes on with the charming couplet “Avenge the patriotic gore… That flecked the streets of Baltimore....”
Speaker of the Maryland House, Del. Adrienne Jones is behind the long-overdue move to abolish “Maryland, My Maryland” as the state song. As she points out, the song has its roots in the Confederacy.
And the Maryland Jockey Club put out this statement on June 25 in response to Del. Jones:
“The Maryland Jockey Club is respectful and supportive of Speaker Jones’ move to remove “Maryland My Maryland” as the state song, and we look forward to starting a new tradition for Preakness 145.”
Ms Jones told the SUNpaper, "It’s extremely offensive. People just hear the words, ‘Maryland, My Maryland.’ But if you look at the words, it’s not something you want to hail as the song for the state.”
What fools some people is that the Ryder poem was put to the music of "O Tannenbaum," the Christmas song of German origin. We sing "O Christmas tree, O Christmas Tree," and the melody sounds so benign.
I'm sure we can find a state song that doesn't salute a failed revolution against the United States.
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