Governor Phil Bredesen
Governor's Office
Tennessee State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243-0001

Phone:?????????????615.741.2001??????
Fax: 615.532.9711
Email: Phil.Bredesen@tn.gov

Help Save Stephen West

The star spangled banner. Moving, beautiful, and above all symbolic to the people, do we dare change it’s lyrics to be constitutionally sound?

We think so. Have you ever noticed the discrepancy? The First Amendment reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .” Although an anthem is no law. There is no legal basis to our request. I think common sense would imply that separation of church and state applies here as well.

So we the people suggest: that the line – ‘And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.” be changed too ‘And this be our motto: “In freedom trust.” This great song would give our motto as something that all faiths could sing in equal good faith. For I think we can all agree that in America the Brave. We are free to worship what gods we will.

O! Thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In Freedom we trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

In Freedom we trust