We visited Fort McHenry in Baltimore
harbor, the birthplace of our national anthem the Star Spangled Banner. It was classic homeschooling; a day filled
with rich learning supported by ample time and personal experience.
First, a little bit about the song: Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer who
found himself aboard a British warship as it attacked Baltimore during the war of 1812. After Fort
McHenry survived the bombardment they
raised an enormous U.S.
flag in defiance of the British. It was
the sight of this sign of victory after a long night of uncertain fate that
inspired the words to this famous song.
It was amazing to walk around the grounds, touch the actual
cannons, stare out into the deep waters where the enemy ships would have been, and
imagine the deafening explosions as the two sides traded gunfire through the
night. Later on they unfurled an actual
replica of the American flag that was used that day and we stood in a huge
rectangle holding the flag taut in the air as the park ranger retold the story
to us again in vivid detail. We learned facts like the flag was 30 feet tall
and 42 feet wide, it had 15 stripes (not 13!), what the word ‘spangled’ means,
and the flag flown in the morning was not the one that had survived throughout
the night. Learning history in this
manner (with all your senses viscerally engaged) really brings it to life and
cements it into your memory in a way no textbook or even movie ever could.
There was a recent study that found that 90% of Americans don’t even know the words to the Star Spangled Banner. Of the 10% who do I would venture that only 10% of those know the events and context surrounding its formation. Of the 1% who know the words and the context I would venture that less than 1% of those have actually been to
To be accurate though the 10% who “know the Star Spangled
Banner” really only know ¼ of the song! How many of you have noticed that when you
sing just the first verse (there are four total) you are left hanging with the
question of whether the flag is even still there or not? (the answer doesn't come until the end of the second verse!)
So the crucial question is not who knows the first quarter of the song
or not, it’s who knows the true message of the whole song. In the final verse Key reveals the secret of
our nation’s founding and protection by introducing our national motto, “In God
We Trust”.
Whenever we take the time to look there is ample godly heritage
in our nation to hearken back to. The
problem is not that we don’t have a rich history, it’s that we haven’t bothered
to study it (or even worse, allowed others to obscure it from us). Reading
through our national anthem (in its entirety) puts our nation’s dawn in the
proper perspective:
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 vict'ry 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!
