The beef is with the third verse which was written to disparage the people that broke against the patriots and fought with the British... including “hirelings and slaves”
it basically says that they fought for the other side and lost, but our flag is still there.
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.
No one ever sings that verse today.
In Germany, people sing the third stanza of “Deutschlandlied.” The first stanza famous during the Third Reich is all but forgotten today.
Too bad Alice Huffman doesn’t know about the War Of 1812 and the circumstances that inspired Francis Scott Key to write our national anthem.
Ignorance must be bliss to her.