Thursday, July 4, 2013

Oh Say, Can You See?

While attending church this past week, the congregation sang The Star Spangled Banner,  to honor the 4 th of July. This song always strikes an emotional chord in me. I have a son we adopted from Sierra Leone Africa, and I will never forget the first 4 th of July he experienced when he thought the fireworks really were "bombs bursting in air" because in his country...they were.
After the terrorists attacked The Pentagon and The Twin Towers, the sight of a tattered and torn American Flag rising from the destruction  overwhelms me when I hear even refrains of this song.
During my most recent experience with the anthem the words to the third verse struck me as being particularly poignant.
In The first verse 'Oh say can you see' is a question the fledgling nation struggles to answer. Look at the third verse:
Oh thus be it ever when free men shall stand,
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation.
Blessed with victory and peace, May 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.
The Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Now it is  a powerful statement. The liberty, freedom and sacrifice our founders bled and died to gain for us is now the battleground on which we labor.
Our great nation drifts toward a society in which we allow government to define what is right, moral, and just based on what they deem is legal.
The revolutionary War was considered illegal, but the moral ranifications of breaking free far outweighed the legal consequences.
We still fight for the moral ground in our country. It will be gained on the backs of hard workers, individuals dedicated to morality and justice, and those who will sacrifice convenience for the greater good.
So today, on this our country's birthday, I ask you to make the statement of which side you fall on. Can you see, what the founding father's intended? Can you see the powerful strength of the greatest nation on the planet?
Can you see the divinity inside us gather to stand in the land of the free and the home of the brave!
God bless The U.S.A.

1 comment:

  1. I never heard our national anthem's third verse until now. In most situations, only the first verse is sung. This is an interesting post.

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