Can't sing the National Anthem? Can't say the Pledge of Allegiance? Time for some members of the School Board there to be retired from public life.
Haven't read this whole thread yet. But I'll wager a dollar to a doughnut that some FReepers have already posted the appropriate phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
The (More er Less) Honorable Billybob,
cyberCongressman from Western Carolina
For the first time I can really relate to Key, and the real meaning of the words in the national anthem.
Key had been captured by the British in the war of 1812. He was standing on the deck of a British ship watching the British attack Baltimore. There was a real question in his mind that his country,The United States, would not survive the war and end up once again a British colony. Form Key's standpoint, the battle looked to be lost. Then he saw the American flag and realized that his country (and the world's first try at self rule) had survived the battle. Key's fears and hopes are put forth in the song. When you put it in context, it is a wonderful piece of poetry.
The Star Spangled Banner
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.<p> 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, 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!