Independence Day Reflections

Today, as we celebrate our nation's independence, it's important to respect the culture out of which that independence was born. The men who fought, debated and crafted our free country were a complex mixture if persistence, intelligence, foresightedness and religious conviction. Those who followed had respect for the men and gratitude for their gift. We who are the inheritors of that gift should not forget this.

I can think of no better way to spend the day than to enjoy it with my family. But, as always, I plan to watch the musical 1776, re-read the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Defense of Fort McHenry, the poem by Francis Scott Key which became the lyrics to our national anthem. I attached it below for your reading pleasure. I always find it's imagery stirring. Back then, words were to writers what paint was to an artist. When you read it, pay attention to the last stanza. Then, as now, it is relevant.

Happy Independence Day from A Layman's Point of View!

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The Defense of Fort McHenry
“The Star Spangled Banner�
Francis Scott Key
20 September 1814

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, 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, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on 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 wiped out their foul footstep's 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.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!