{"id":738,"date":"2014-09-14T16:53:54","date_gmt":"2014-09-14T20:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bakeramitchell.com\/?p=738"},"modified":"2014-09-14T16:53:54","modified_gmt":"2014-09-14T20:53:54","slug":"the-star-spangled-banner-asks-a-question-what-is-its-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/14\/the-star-spangled-banner-asks-a-question-what-is-its-answer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Star Spangled Banner Asks a Question. What is its answer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[The following is the text of a brief address that I gave to an assembly of students at Charter Day School, Leland, NC in 2004.\u00a0 I have repeated it several times since and now share it with you on the anthem’s 200th anniversary.]<\/em><\/h4>\n

Our 20th<\/sup> President James Garfield said that freedom and justice can only stand on the foundation of a well-educated citizenry. In a moment we will sing our country\u2019s national anthem \u2013 \u201cThe Star Spangled Banner\u201d – so perhaps it is fitting to review for you boys and girls the heritage represented by this song.\"ssb\"<\/a><\/p>\n

England had started a war to conquer the United States in 1812.\u00a0 This song was written by Mr. Scott Key on September 14, 1814, after he had witnessed a horrific night-time attack by our enemy\u2019s battleships on Fort McHenry \u2013 a vital defense to our land. Before the battle, our fort’s commander had ordered that a huge United States flag be erected over the fort. It was 30\u2019 tall by 40\u2019 wide and could be seen from a great distance. This great flag is the \u201cStar-spangled banner\u201d about which Key is writing.<\/p>\n

As he tells during this opening stanza, Key saw his flag still flying at twilight the previous evening \u2013 \u201cin the twilight\u2019s last gleaming\u201d he writes.\u00a0 And during the night, he was able to catch glimpses of the big flag flying in the flashes of the enemy\u2019s bombardment – \u201cin the rocket\u2019s red glare and bomb\u2019s burst in air.\u201d\u00a0 But with the haze and fog, he asks in the dawn\u2019s early light does our flag still wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave? That is the question of the first stanza with which we are all so familiar.<\/p>\n

Now, in the second stanza, recall that our enemy the English also had a flag with red, white, and blue colors. The early morning\u2019s mist makes it difficult for Key to distinguish which country\u2019s flag flies over the fort after twenty-five hours of steady attack by the enemy\u2019s\u00a0entire\u00a0fleet of warships. So through the morning mist he had a hard time seeing whose flag was flying over the fort. At the end of the second stanza, Key reveals the answer. \u201cTis the star-spangled banner \u2013 long may it wave, over the land of the free and the home of the brave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Key now realizes that with Fort McHenry undefeated the English have lost this last attempt to conquer our land. He realizes we have won this war.<\/p>\n

So in the third stanza, Key hurls a warning to future enemies by asking – “Where now are those enemies that marched ashore to deprive us of home and country through the havoc of war\u2019s confusion?” And he writes in this third stanza that there can be no refuge for our enemies who, in his words, \u201cbrought war\u2019s desolation to our lov\u2019d homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He answers that \u201cTheir blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.\u201d And that nothing can save them \u00a0\u201cfrom the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.\u201d\u00a0 Key closes this stanza by again declaring that the flag of the free and the brave waves in triumph over the carnage.<\/p>\n

Key\u2019s fourth and final stanza dictates our course for future struggles and needs no comment; nearly 200 years later in 2004 we once more stand against an enemy who has brought \u201cwar\u2019s desolation\u201d to our lov\u2019d home. Key\u2019s forth stanza reads:<\/p>\n

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
\nBetween their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
\nBlest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
\nPraise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
\nThen conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
\nAnd this be our motto – “In God is our trust,”
\nAnd the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
\nO’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.<\/i><\/p>\n

Our national anthem promises that victory is assured when we free people, trusting in God, stand to justly defend our homes from war\u2019s desolation.<\/p>\n

So as we stand and sing the question<\/b> asked in our anthem\u2019s first<\/b> stanza, let us always remember the answer<\/b> proclaimed in the fourth<\/b> stanza.<\/p>\n

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
\nAnd this be our motto – “In God is our trust,”\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

May we all please stand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[The following is the text of a brief address that I gave to an assembly of students at Charter Day School, Leland, NC in 2004.\u00a0 I have repeated it several times since and now share it with you on the anthem’s 200th anniversary.] Our 20th President James Garfield said that freedom and justice can only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5,6,11,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-k-12","category-learning-and-education","category-letters-to-the-blogger","category-reviews","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}