"Star Spangled Banner": the last verse.
http://weaselzippers.us/2010/06/05/video-from-a-tea-party-rally-that-will-take-your-breath-away/
When I was growing up I recall seeing the American flag with it’s symmetrical 48 stars and thirteen stripes, and I remember at picnics on the 4th of July hearing the band music bombulating out “The Stars and Stripes Forever”, and at ball games hearing “The National Anthem”, and never did it cross my childish mind that a day would come when that noble old flag would be torn and treaded on, spat upon, and cursed as it is today. For many people in the world who don’t know us, strangers born and consumed in the torrent of their tears trying, despite the misery of their lives, to eat, to worship God, find shelter, be clothed, and to enjoy the laughter of children, mistakenly look on our flag and find persecution, indifference, gluttony, brutality, and selfishness. They look, but they do not see.
The American flag does not represent the United States government, or an army, or a navy, or victories gained in peace or war. It’s the other way around. Our government strives to represent our flag. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, our heroes of public service, all struggle and sometimes die in the hope that what they have done somehow represents our flag. Our school classrooms, our public buildings, our courts, and the things that go on inside of them endeavor to represent our flag, The flag does not represent capitalism, or big business, individual wealth, or any sort of selfish dream at all. Our flag represents a blessing that we have received, and a belief that all humanity, every race, every man, woman, child, can and should forever be free. The flag doesn’t wave up there in the God given sky and say, “I am better than all the flags that have ever flown before. Come and pay homage to me”. What our flag says is, “Follow us. You, the person, the individual, no matter where on earth you live, you really can be better than you ever imagined.” Our flag says, “Believe in yourself, trust in God, be proud of yourself when you do what you know is right and never stop working to make things better, never quit, never allow prejudice, or indifference or hatred or fear say you cannot or should not be free.”
Today our flag has 50 stars in a beautiful galaxy of diversity. We have grown up from those regimental 48 stars, from the brave encampment of our thirteen stars, and we have grown from the one bonnie-blue star, and from the stars-and-bars, too. We have grown, but we are not finished. Not by a long shot. We are becoming better. We are entering a new era. Our children are inheriting a new challenge we could never have imagined. A time has come upon us when we learn every day of innocent lives taken by the hand of fear, hatred, neglect, and ignorance. We learn of persons in the public trust who pervert that trust, of immorality, godlessness, and utter despair. It is shameful, and we should all be sick of it. In response to this, our flag says loud and clear, “Take heart. If you want to rise above the tide, reach out to those beneath you regardless of where they are, regardless of where they were born, the station of their birth, or their religion, regardless of the way they dress, the music they listen to, the language they speak, their race, or their creed. Gently touch all those who are imprisoned in the sickness of their spirit, and lift them up. In doing that you will lift yourself higher than you ever dreamed possible, for that is what we have done.”
So, when you see our flag listen to what it’s saying to the whole star spangled world. If it passes by in a parade, or there’s a pledge of allegiance, or you hear The Star Spangled Banner, hold your hand over your heart, and know deep inside your heart that the noble blessing our flag represents is indeed alive and growing. Not always in our government, or always in the way we conduct our lives, for we are not perfect, but always in the spirit We the People have become by believing in what our flag represents. Encourage that idea to live in your children and in everything you try to do so that this wonderful blessing of freedom may live on forever, and for all of us. God bless America. Have a happy Flag Day!
~ Annonymous
Aoresteen
06-12-2010, 04:07
It's also the Army's 235th birthday. We (Army soldiers in Iraq) will get 2 beers and slice of cake on Monday! :D
There are actually four original verses. I never knew that until I went to Flight School back in 1980. While there, we had to do lots of memorization nonsense. One of the things we had to memorize was all four verses of the Star Spangled Banner - and be able to recite any selected verse on demand.
The gentlemen gave an awesome performance by the way - wow.
Here is the complete song:
O! 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 through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through 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 through 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 in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
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.
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
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!
Green Light
06-12-2010, 12:17
The fourth verse has always been my favorite. It ties the rest of the song together. I've always felt that singing the first verse alone is incomplete, since Key's original question was unanswered: Did they surrender? Is the flag still there?
Unfortunately, I didn't get any National Anthem questions to memorize. I did know, for example, how many lug nuts were on a 2 1/2 ton truck. I have thankfully forgotten all of that stuff that was necessary for the well rounded military officer. :D
The fourth verse has always been my favorite. It ties the rest of the song together. I've always felt that singing the first verse alone is incomplete, since Key's original question was unanswered: Did they surrender? Is the flag still there?
Unfortunately, I didn't get any National Anthem questions to memorize. I did know, for example, how many lug nuts were on a 2 1/2 ton truck. I have thankfully forgotten all of that stuff that was necessary for the well rounded military officer. :D
I don't think I ever appreciated any of those verses - not until today. I think today is the first time I ever heard anyone sing that last verse. We just had to recite it - and it was more of a chore than a work of poetry reading.
Back then - it meant about as much to me as rattling off my General Orders. What a dope I was.
greenberetTFS
06-12-2010, 16:03
Hey guys I agree with both of you,that last verse was the one that I memorized......:D:D:D
Big Teddy :munchin
I just get a kick out of the fact that the melody comes from an old British gentleman's club song celebrating wine, women and song ("To Anacreon in Heaven").
Snaquebite
06-17-2010, 10:34
In indignation over the start of the Civil War, Oliver Wendell Holmes added a fifth stanza to the song in 1861 which appeared in songbooks of the era.
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When our land is illumined with liberty's smile,
If a foe from within strikes a blow at her glory,
Down, down with the traitor that tries to defile
The flag of the stars, and the page of her story!
By the millions unchained,
Who their birthright have gained
We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
While the land of the free is the home of the brave.