Winter's Wisdom: Star Spangled Anthem of American Godliness

Winter's Wisdom: Star Spangled Anthem of American Godliness: This is the greatest country that has ever existed in the history of the earth. Its accomplishments in little over a hundred years in the ...

Star Spangled Anthem of American Godliness

This is the greatest country that has ever existed in the history of the earth. Its accomplishments in little over a hundred years in the fields of technology, medicine, and general creature comforts are unparalleled and unprecedented. Unfortunately for us as a nation while we have created and done these great and amazing things, we have on an individual and social level forgotten much of the American traditions that have made us such a great nation.

The founding men and women of this nation believed in God. Not as some vague, abstract idea of Omnipotence. Instead these men and women believed in a Creator that had endowed men in his image and with attributes inalianable to man. Rights and freedoms having been given by God on a personal and an individual level that cannot be given or taken away by man. How many of us truly understand these freedoms? Many of us can puppet the things that we learned in school. Do we really understand what it is to be free?

There are only two forces at work in this world. Those forces either promote liberty or they take away freedom and bind us body and soul. Those forces are at work all around us day in and day out. If as it has been taught, there are only two options what is it that we think as a nation is happening all around us?

President Ezra Taft Benson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in a talk given while an Apostle in the Sixties said very explicitly that the nation in that day was MORE evil than Sodom and Gomorrah. On a purely temporal level how many of us look around us and see how each and every day little by little our liberties given us by God Himself and secured by those brave, patriot founders of this nation are infringed upon and taken away by our own decadence, by our media, by our entertainment and by our very Government. Do we think that things have gotten better since the Sixties?

We live in a time when mass media and popular culture promote Godlessness and disrespect. How very far we have sunken since the days of our Nation’s founding. We live in a day where it is almost unacceptable to show our patriotism and where disregarding our flag and our national anthem are not only acceptable, but are promoted. It is now acceptable to stay seated during the presentation of the flag and to refuse to participate in our National Anthem. The banner song of this great and God founded nation has been made taboo.

This Sunday next is the celebration of the birth of this great Nation. How many of us even know the National Anthem? How many of us know its history or even that there is a “politically incorrect” verse which has been removed?

It is important for each and every person that calls themselves an American to know and to understand the history behind this inspiring Anthem.

Francis Scott Key, the writer of The Star Spangled Banner, was kept aboard a prison ship during the battle of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. The British had made an agreement to a prisoner exchange the next morning on condition that the fort was still held by the Americans. Unknown to many people, this battle was also to prove the course of the war. If the British succeeded in capturing the fort, America as a nation, would have ceased to exist. The American Patriots inside knew this and for that reason did everything in their power to ensure that the Flag remained flying.

The National Anthem of the United States of America of itself tells a story and offers a vivid warning. The first verse which reads thus

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 thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

This very first verse is in the form of a very anxious question. It begs of the recipient the knowledge of whether or not the Flag that had proudly waved the previous evening was waving yet the next morning. I have read that the next morning upon there being enough light by which to see, Francis Key saw that the flag was tilted at an odd angle. This puzzled him until it was made known to him afterwards that this was because, due to the sheer volume and magnitude of the British bombardments that repeatedly struck the flagpole it was eventually necessary for the men themselves to hold and support the flag. The bombardment did not let up and it was repeatedly necessary for new volunteers to take hold of the flag, knowing that they would die. The flag was literally held up by the bodies of the Patriots inside the fort.

Furthering the story of the Start Spangled Banner is the second verse. This verse tells of the unveiling of the Flag in the first bright rays of the morning.  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.Towards the end of this verse an exclamation is made. “‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave”

Many people are unaware that there is a little known third verse that has since been removed. I imagine that it was done for political purposes. This verse makes a boast. It tells the enemies of America that America is here to stay. It goes so far as to say:

“ 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:”

This is a rallying verse for all true patriots of this great country. Enemies beware.

The last verse of the original song makes an appeal to Deity and a promise to the people. The beginning 4 lines speak of our responsibility to stand up for ourselves and defend what is ours. They tell us that we will be “blest” when we do. That we will Only prosper when we are a Godly people.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

The last 4 lines are the most important by far. “Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.” We will only conquer in our endeavors as a nation when they are righteous endeavors. Our nation has moved away from its original Godly foundation. No longer is it acceptable to pray in school. No longer is it acceptable to have the 10 commandments in our public buildings. No longer is it acceptable for a person to discuss the princepals that this nation was created under. This is what is unacceptable. We need to remember these principles and remember the words of the Star Spangled Banner, our National Anthem.

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 victory 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!

Winter's Wisdom: See to Be.

Winter's Wisdom: See to Be.: I have found that in my experience the majority of people neither recognize nor act upon opportunities which are presented to them. They spe...

See to Be.

I have found that in my experience the majority of people neither recognize nor act upon opportunities which are presented to them. They spend the majority of their lives hoping for opportunities to come to them. They do not seek them out and when they do come they do not notice them. In regards to your post I think that it is key to understand that when one capitalizes on a "dead end" or "fruitless" opportunity really what they are doing is learning how to SEE and how to KNOW. They are gaining the habit of action. By so doing they are preparing themselves to be ready for the times when amazing opportunities do present themselves. Without the habit of looking for and finding opportunities one will continually be asking the ever-limiting question of "Why" instead of the liberating and life-changing question of "Why not".