Greg Albaugh- Citizens Journal Contributor
Today is the day that we celebrate American independence from Britain. The house will be decorated in red, white, and blue and friends and family will congregate. Barbeque and cold beer are staples of this holiday.
There are a lot of extraneous noise in America today. Recently, Olympic athletes’ disrespect the flag and threaten to burn it on the podium. We are becoming a nation of spoiled children who know they will not get spanked for throwing a tantrum in public.
We need to renew the honor and respect that the stars and stripes deserve. Please take 12 minutes of your holiday to watch the video below about the origin of the national anthem by Francis Scott Key.
There have been some differences over the lyrics, especially the third verse, but the commonly accepted words are:
Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
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!
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 God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
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Who could say more than “Amen?”