Now controversial: ‘God Bless America’

It didn't used to be — that's a phrase we use a lot these days, isn't it? — but the Fourth of July festivities bring out the angriest guff from the left. In 1991 Boston Globe arts critic (and aspiring poet) Patricia Smith decided to refashion the national anthem in the leftist rag "The Nation." "Oh say, we've seen too much," she began. "The Star-Spangled Banner pushes like a cough through America's mouth and the twilight&

It didn't used to be — that's a phrase we use a lot these days, isn't it? — but the Fourth of July festivities bring out the angriest guff from the left. In 1991 Boston Globe arts critic (and aspiring poet) Patricia Smith decided to refashion the national anthem in the leftist rag "The Nation." "Oh say, we've seen too much," she began. "The Star-Spangled Banner pushes like a cough through America's mouth and the twilight's last gleaming is just that, a sickly flash above our heads as we ride un…