blogs.kxly.com

I am patriotic!  I am proud to be an American!  I love our flag and I get chills saying the pledge of allegiance (especially when I hear children say it)… and I get weepy nearly everytime I hear or sing the National Anthem.

I say “nearly” because people can be so rude.  My family and I went to the WSU Cougar basketball game last Saturday night (Go COUGS!).. and, during the Star Spangled Banner, a few rows in front of us… a couple of young women talked and cut-up through the entire song.  GRRRRrrrrr!  Then.. during the last line of the song… (you know, the one… “Land of the Free and Home of the BRAVE”)  the student section shouted “Cougs” instead of singing “Brave” .  This has happened at every sporting event I’ve gone to in the last few years… the Chief’s fans scream “Chiefs,” the Shock fans scream “Shock”… and I wish they’d all knock it off! 

I’m not a stick in the mud, by any means.. but, I think some things are sacred.. and our National Anthem is one of them. 

… wait a minute!  Maybe they just don’t know!  Maybe they’ve actually forgotten what the real words to the Star Spangled Banner are…  I’m here to help… here they are.. enjoy.. and remember.. we live in the “Land of the Free and the Home of the BRAVE”

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:
‘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 wash’d 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 lov’d homes and the war’s desolation;
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us as a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause 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!

Trackback URI | Comments RSS