The Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

Happy fourth of July!

Ok, I’m writing this post on the fifth, but I meant to write it on the fourth. Ahhwell.

I think that Star Spangled Banner is the best patriotic song…ever.  Some call it a ‘drunken bar song’, and where that came from, I have no idea. Read these words, and tell me that your don’t get choked up:

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? On the shore dimly seen thro’ the mists of the deep, Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes, 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 on the stream: ‘T is the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

I can see the author, sitting in choppy waters on the enemy’s boat.  He’s waiting for them to destroy Fort McHenry and wanting them to get it over with…because there’s nothing he can do for his fellow men except pray.  And pray he did.  Exploding bombs and rockets lit up the darkness, and gave proof throughout the night…that the almighty flag was still there in all her glory.  We were not giving up!  I can feel the morning dew, as the sun barely rose over the horizon.  The calm and quiet waters, the boat rocking back and forth, the silence of death, and the glory of the tattered flag…billowing in the somber breeze.

If every person thought about that bittersweet moment once this fourth of July, maybe enough people would remember what those men went through to get what we have now.  Those who want to destroy us with communist policies are going to drive us out of our apathy, but by then it will be too late.  The men who died for what our flag stands for fought their way to America, and then defended it from powerful dictators who had policies just like our Presidential “Hopefuls”.  I will put hope in what old glory stands for, that there are still those out there that are brave enough to vote to protect it. 

Long may she wave, for we are the land of the Free, because of the BRAVE!