Maine has a lot of official stuff. There’s an official state bird (chickadee), an official state floral emblem (pine cone and tassel), an official state dessert (blueberry pie) and … um … an official state dirt.
I’m not making that up. In 1999, the Legislature designated something called Chesuncook as the official state soil, because, according to the secretary of state’s website, “Soil is important to Maine’s natural resource base.”
As a person whose property is mostly composed of granite ledge, I could express an opposing viewpoint. Granite just doesn’t get the respect it deserves. It’s not even the official state mineral, which is tourmaline. Henceforth, I will only vote for legislative candidates who support making granite the official state something or other.
Engaging in rampant officialifying is usually harmless fun. It keeps legislators busy so they aren’t raising taxes or restricting our rights. And who doesn’t enjoy a lighthearted barroom brawl over whether the landlocked salmon really deserves to be the official state fish, while the eastern brook trout and blueback char are relegated to the lesser status of official state heritage fishes, whatever that means.
Every now and then, though, the discussion over what ought to be official takes a turn from the mildly stupid to the seriously disturbing. Such was the case when the Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee held a public hearing on May 1 on a bill to make a song called “The Ballad of the 20th Maine” the official state ballad.
This stirring little number, written by a member of the band The Ghost of Paul Revere, details the events in the Civil War on July 2. 1863, when the 20th Maine under General Joshua Chamberlain successfully defended Little Round Top in one of the decisive conflicts of the Battle of Gettysburg. The lyrics suggest the opposing Confederates “Go straight to hell with your rebel yell.”
That was too divisive for such a sensitive soul as Republican state Rep. Frances Head of West Bethel. According to the Maine Beacon website, Head told the committee, “I find it a little bit, we are united states, we are not Union, we are united states. And I find it just a little bit – I won’t say offensive, but that’s what I mean – to say that we’re any better than the South was.”
Pretty sure the North won. That’s sort of the definition of better.
Head was joined in her criticism of the song by GOP state Rep. Roger Reed of Carmel, who informed the committee, “Many of them were great Christian men on both sides. They fought hard, and they were fighting for states’ rights as they saw them.”
The right the Confederacy was fighting for was the right to own slaves. Doesn’t seem all that Christian.
“The Ballad of the 20th Maine” is well composed, catchy and deserves the honor of being officially recognized. It’s superior in every way to the state’s official song, which carries the uninspired title of “The State of Maine Song.” (Although, any hardcore Mainer will tell you the state’s real anthem should be “Tombstone Every Mile” written by Dan Fulkerson and recorded by Dick Curless.)
The wacky objections to the ballad expressed by Head and Reed are unpleasant examples of historical revisionism rife with undertones of racism.
Which continues to be the unofficial state dirt.
Go to (civil) war with me by emailing aldiamon@herniahill.net.
Typical Al blubbering his same old rhetoric. The winners(the north) write history. That being said they were not fighting for the right to own slaves, they were fighting the government control over their livelihood. Do some research and you will see their were slave owners north and south.
Also if all the statues in the south are being torn down because of “racism” why would Maine want a song like that. It’s not “racist” to not want a controversial song Al !!!!!!
The southern states did indeed object to northern interference… Using slave labor was a very big part in all this for sure.
Is there “any” comparison from southern slavery to the shenanigans that were going on in the northern manufacturing mills?
Yes there is a certain some level of it…
The North was supporting hard child labor, immigrant abuse, exploiting women and controlling families while at the same time campaigning against southern slavery.
I’ll admit the southern slavery trade was worse,,, but the North was hypocritical.
As always,,,”Follow The Stinking Money”.
All this had nothing to do with the brilliant performance of the 20th Maine. They were fighting for their lives and each other as they bravely held their ground.
Bravery and Valor was extraordinary!!
…which was dependent on the labor of black slaves.
you’re drawing a false comparison. statues memorializing the confederacy, many of which were erected in the 20th century as a reactionary symbol celebrating jim crow and lamenting civil rights, are implicitly racist. the confederacy fought a war for rights which prominently included the right to own and abuse people (yes, yes, because they felt their economy depended on it, poor bastards). you can argue up and down that the war was not just about slavery, but if you’re puzzled about why a celebration of the lost cause is viewed as racist, you’re going to need more than “some research.”
the controversy around the song seems to be that a couple white folks object to drawing a moral distinction between those that fought for that, and those that fought for the union–from a state that contributed a higher proportion of soldiers for the cause than any other.
“States’ rights” is an old argument for preserving slavery.
The CSA kicked Yankee butt all over the south for two whole years, the Union Army wasn’t all that great and two major mistakes delivered the CSA to the north, 1) President Davis asked General Lee to deliver a letter to President Lincoln, and 2) General Lee agreed to deliver it. But Lee failed to realize that between him and Washington was the Union Army. If Lee had stayed in the south and just kept close to his supply lines the Civil War may have had a different outcome. And Lincoln’s last ditch effort to stave off war is still awaiting ratification, A Constitutional amendment that will make the former slave states, slave states once again but won’t allow any other states to become slave states. It needed 2 more signatures in 1860, it needs 23 more today, Maine has already signed it, thanks Gov. Morrill for having the fortitude to do what was Constitutionally right, something modern democrats can’t seem to do. And our country’s full name is the Republic of United States of America. It tells our form of government (Republic), what makes up our country(a union of individual states) and our location(America), We have dropped Republic from our name because, well the constitution says what our form of government is and everybody should know what the constitution says, so now it is just the United States of America. The song is stupid and in no way does it represent our great state, Maine was a state before July 2 1863 and it has remained a state after July 2 1863. Dems need to quit virtue signaling.
From stopping slavery to fighting discrimination against blacks to women’s rights to now gay marriage, the South is always pulled kicking and screaming by the North into a more rational world. Legalized marijuana is probably next.
I have to agree that objections to the ballot are whacky and silly. (Good Christians on both sides? Hell, there were a lot of good Christian people fighting for Nazi Germany too!) But hey, people need to complain about something!
Scott
Were you the guy singing in line waiting to cast ya ballad?
Read Pullen’s book THE TWENTIETH MAINE and understand what Maine men did at Little Round Top that day in July. It was truly heroic !!!!
Surely there are other candidates for the State Song.
Jackson Browne’s Nothing But Time celebrates having a good time in Maine until Labor Day and then heading south.
The Wicked Good Band have a State of Maine song about going skiing, going shushing and going George and Barbara Bushing. They also had one about the Half Moon Motor Court in South Freeport, probably a little too regional.
New Riders of the Purple Sage sang Portland Woman.
Dave Mallett’s yearning for old times is wonderfully capsulized in The Last Time I Saw Annie.
Joni Mitchell wrote about the logging industry in For The Roses.
Maine’s own Heather Masse of the Wailin’ Jennys wrote Bird Song which celebrates nature and ecology.
Gordon Bok sings about Isle Au Haut, mentioning that you’re a damn fool if you stay but there’s no place better to go.
About sums it up.
My personal vote goes to Six Cords Shy of a Broken Back by Flooded Cellar. But I’d take almost any Dave Mallett song as a runner up.
Look, I’ve gone into countless bars, restaurants ,churches, Grange halls and nursing homes around this state for years to play music. Every time I sing A Tombstone Every Mile people’s faces light up and they start singing along. That song still has my vote!
“(… any hardcore Mainer will tell you the state’s real anthem should be “Tombstone Every Mile” written by Dan Fulkerson and recorded by Dick Curless.)
Just for the record, in 1975 Carol Sterling, then an RN at Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport, and I won a dance contest at a Thomaston hotel where Dick Curless was performing.
Sterling to this day denies any memory of this event. But I am attesting to its reality. We were drinking Grolsch beer (www.grolsch.com/) at the time. (No wonder Sterling denies memory LOL.)
Curless oversaw the contest judging.
The soldiers of both the North and the South were brave men. They had honor, and they had dignity and they fought courageously for a noble cause. They were all American soldiers. If you have never walked onto a field of battle, and fought for your country, you really don’t have any right to say a damn thing about their intentions and what was in their heart.
tedcohen….. do you still have a taste for that great beer… Most people now seem to bring lawnmower beer.
To Glen Holt..
Sad to say I haven’t had a Grolsch since the ‘good ole days.’