Cancel culture is rearing its ugly head again, and the latest target in its crosshairs is “The Star-Spangled Banner,” our national anthem. The new attempt at shattering a tradition shows that nothing in this country is truly sacred.

On Wednesday, Yahoo music editor Lyndsey Parker advocated for finding a new national anthem. She argued that Francis Scott Key, who wrote the song using the words from his 1813 poem, “The Defence of Fort M’Henry,” was an attorney that prosecuted abolitionists and did not believe in freedom for all, so we should not use his words as the national anthem.

Yes, in America, we apparently not only now believe in the concept of guilty until proven innocence, but that you should be burned in effigy long after you’re dead and can no longer come to your own defense. Just ask the folks who came up with the film “Gone With the Wind.”

Of course, Key’s chosen profession is not the only argument Parker gives in her recommendation that “The Star-Spangled Banner” be thrown into a rusty-looking barrel and set on fire. She points out a reference to slavery in the third stanza: “No refuge could save the hireling and slave/From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave/And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave/O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

The words speak for themselves, and they certainly are harsh, not the best way to unify people in this day and age. However, I have rarely heard “The Star-Spangled Banner” performed beyond the first stanza and only realized the song had four stanzas when I did a Google search, but apparently everybody is too mesmerized by the rocket’s red glare to sing beyond the first.

Then again, people’s attention spans are so short nowadays that we should be thankful they even sing about the flag’s broad stripes and bright stars.

I’m hoping it’s that collective attention span of three seconds that puts this idea back into the mists of obscurity. Condemning a man for what he wrote two centuries ago is just an excuse to rattle a sabre and continue to pick at wounds instead of letting them heal. Besides, what are we going to find out there that’s better and will get us all to let the issue rest? We can’t even decide who’s decent enough to be president or what healthcare system will work for us, so how can we decide on an anthem?

The song was made our national anthem in 1931, after slavery ended. That third stanza was still there when the government decided it was going to be the song of choice whenever we unfurled the Stars and Stripes, warts and all. If there was a time for people’s noses to be bent out of shape over the words in a song, it would have been then. To pass judgment now is just another attempt to look like saints when we’re just a nation of sinners.

Just out of curiosity, I wondered what served as the national anthem prior to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” One was “Hail, Columbia” by Joseph Hopkinson, first considered to be the president’s official anthem before “Hail to the Chief” came along, and then it became the vice president’s personal anthem. The chorus is “Firm, united let us be/Rallying round our liberty/As a band of brothers joined/Peace and safety we shall find.” I had never heard the song before.

There was a second song that I grew up learning but never knew it was once the national anthem. Written by Samuel Francis Smith, “America” (also known as “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”) has zero offensive lyrics, although the cancel culture of our current country probably would still find a reason to hate it. After all, it spoke of being the “Land where my fathers died/Land of the pilgrims’ pride/From ev’ry mountainside/Let freedom ring!”

However, my curiosity also uncovered an abolitionist version of “America” written by A.G. Duncan in 1843, and Duncan’s words would definitely be considered inflammatory. Take this, for example: “Let wailing swell the breeze/And ring from all the trees the black man’s wrong.” Even though it talks about ending slavery, the sensitive snowflakes of today would consider the language to be offensive, because who wants to think about slavery?

It’s time for cancel culture to take a siesta. Leave “The Star-Spangled Banner” alone and focus on the major issues our country faces. Don’t let the words of a long dead man trigger you. Besides, if you can find a better song to be the national anthem, present it and let us decide on that song’s merits. To decide “The Star-Spangled Banner” is passé without having a viable alternative is a waste of breath.